Love them or hate them, Hollywood has
had absolutely no shortage of film remakes and reboots in recent
years - it seems almost every notable film of the past 40 years has
been getting a redo lately. Inconceivably, there’s even talks of a
Princess
Bride remake,
which absolutely nobody wants. Because the original is just so
good. I wouldn’t mind a NeverEnding Story remake though,
I want to see Atreyu, Falkor, and Gmork in modern CGI.
In any case, since Hollywood is in such
a remake-craze, there are actually a few diamonds in the rough to
look forward to. In this article, we’re going to list 5 movie
remakes (or reboots) that, if things go well, should
definitely be worth watching when they’re released in 2020.
The Grudge
Japanese horror franchise Ju-On was
remade into an American box office success in 2004, and Hollywood is
hoping to recapture that success with a film reboot. The 2020 reboot
(“sidequel”) of The Grudge stars Andrea
Riseborough, Demián Bichir, John Cho, Betty Gilpin, Lin Shaye and
Jacki Weaver, and was directed by Nicolas Pesce.
Released in theaters on January 3,
2020, The Grudge hasn’t been performing so hot - in fact, it
was the lowest opening of any title in the entire Grudge series.
However, even if it is a pretty hokey reboot as far as
script writing goes, the talented cast obviously did their best to
work with what they were given. It’s also a lot gorier with more
jump-scares than the previous Grudge versions. So, it’s
definitely worth a watch if you keep your expectations a little low.
Dune
1965’s Dune is widely
considered the most influential and greatest
sci-fi story ever written, and sadly, the 1984 movie
adaptation did it very little justice. The 2020 version is set to be
the first of a brand new two-part adaptation, and on paper, it’s
shaping up to sound pretty awesome.
Dune is being directed by Denis
Villeneuve, who also directed the awesome Blade Runner 2049
sequel, Dune will feature a pretty stacked ensemble cast -
Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin,
Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian,
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa and
Javier Bardem have all signed on. Oh, and the amazing Hans Zimmer
will score the movie, so yeah, this should totally be worth watching.
Mulan
Disney is intent on releasing as many
live-action versions of their cartoon classics as possible, and the
next one will be Mulan. Mulan was actually an awesome
Disney movie in the late 90s, and paved
the way for future strong, independent Disney female
characters like Moana and Brave.
The 2020 live-action Mulan features
an incredible cast of famous Asian actors, including
Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee,
Yoson An, Gong Li, and Jet Li. I’m actually really excited for this
movie writing about it. Disney rewrote the script in several places,
adding a handful of entirely new characters, so it’s not a
shot-for-shot remake of the 1998 cartoon version. Either way, it
should be an absolutely-can’t-miss film in 2020.
Candyman
1992’s supernatural urban legend
horror Candyman was based on a short story, The Forbidden,
by co-master of horror Clive Barker (him and Stephen King
share the title, imo). The original Candyman film followed
the written source material pretty darn good, and was regarded as a
contemporary classic of horror films by critics upon its release.
The 2020 remake is being directed by
Nia DaCosta, a rising director known for her breakout film Little
Woods in 2018, which was awarded the Nora Ephron award for
"excellence in storytelling by a female writer or director."
Universal Pictures has scheduled release for June 12, 2020, so if
it’s even half as good as the original, this is definitely a remake
to watch in 2020.
Godzilla vs Kong
Rampaging giant monsters Godzilla and
King Kong first clashed in 1962, and they’re looking to settle just
who is the biggest monster of them all in this 2020 reboot. There’s
something so nostalgic and old-timey about these two titanic
monsters, watching them duke it out, with all the modern day special
effects, should be a pretty stellar popcorn experience.
Godzilla vs Kong is being
directed by Adam Wingard and features a pretty notable cast -
Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree
Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza González, Jessica Henwick, Julian Dennison,
Kyle Chandler, Zhang Ziyi, and Demián Bichir..