Phantom of the Paradise

[Gwai Lo]

Best movie ever?

Discuss.

[wcmartell]

We'll remember you forever, Eddie...

Toys From Sing Sing!

How often is a rock star fried on-stage?

- Bill (worried about the remake)

[Signal30]

Originally Posted by wcmartell

How often is a rock star fried on-stage?

[Insert Jimi Hendrix joke here]

[Gwai Lo]

I don't think a remake is a serious threat, but I'm basing this assumption on a random IMDB comment I found from someone named "glimmung-2":

From The Swan Archives:

Edward R. Pressman, who was credited as Producer on Phantom, has listed a remake of the film as "coming soon" on his website for years. We believe this is why some gullible soul submitted the supposed remake into the Internet Movie Database, which in turn occasionally inspires panicky fans to get in touch with us to ask "is it true?" (Our answer appears below, dated January 22, 2007.) Pressman's website has now finally deleted reference to the project; the Phantom remake is now no longer listed there, so everyone can sleep easy. Sheesh

Although just this weekend Harry Knowles laid this little doozy on us in his DVD column on AICN:

One night Guillermo Del Toro and I agreed that nobody that didn’t like PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE could be cool. And then we spent many hours as he told me why he wanted to remake it as I spent hours convincing him that it would never be as brilliant as the original. Then Guillermo cried in my arms and suckled upon my thumb. At least. That’s how I remember the conversation.

I really don't see why anyone would feel the need to remake The Phantom of the Paradise. It is a perfect film in my opinion. It seems like any intelligent filmmaker wanting to do something similar would be better off going to the source and adapting the story of Faust in their own way, or remaking the Phantom of the Opera in their own way. It's not like you could possibly do it De Palma's own way better than De Palma. I'm not really opposed to remakes on principle, but Phantom of the Paradise is already a rock opera take on Phantom of the Opera, which is a Universal Monsters take on a Gaston Leroux novel that was a take on Faust. There's only so much rejiggering you can do, especially following De Palma's master class in rejiggering. A faithful remake would be utterly pointless. If it's going to be the funk/soul/r&b/hip hop version or something then call it Phantom of the Apollo instead and hope no one notices that you're cribbing from a genius.