Peckinpah's 'Straw Dogs' Getting Remade by Rod Lurie
Filed under: Classics, Drama, Thrillers, Sony
As movies continue to get more and more violent -- and as filmmakers keep defending the violence -- it makes sense that one of the most controversially violent films would get a remake. Yes, Sam Peckinpah's disturbing classic Straw Dogs is being redone, and this time it will of course take place in America. The original, for those who haven't seen it, took place in the English countryside, where a couple played by Dustin Hoffman and Susan George are terrorized by locals. Screen Gems is still in the process of acquiring the rights to the film, but they already have a screenwriter (Reed Steiner) and a director (Rod Lurie). The project definitely appears to be more on track than the proposed remake of Peckinpah's Wild Bunch we heard about awhile back. Considering Peckinpah's Straw Dogs is pretty sick even by today's standards, Steiner and Lurie will have to up the violence to possibly NC-17 levels. Personally, I can hardly stand the graphic nature of the raping and murdering that occurs in the 35-year-old original, so I don't know what more I could take in a redo. Fortunately the new version won't be made by someone like Eli Roth. I have hopes that Lurie, who made The Contender, one of my favorite films of 2000, will be concentrating on the themes of violence more than the actual depiction of violence, since the director tends to work with more political material. Certainly the more interesting aspect -- and one of the more controversial aspects -- of Straw Dogs is the how Hoffman and George react to the violence committed against them as well as by them.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-30-2007 @ 1:44PM
Martha Fischer said...
Oh dear GOD. I think this is where I yell "Is nothing sacred?!" and storm off in a huff.
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3-30-2007 @ 3:14PM
oolookitty said...
This is all bad enough, but unfortunately it appears that Eli Roth has his own blasphemous project in the works... he's going to ruin "The Bad Seed."
Aaaaargh.
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3-30-2007 @ 3:55PM
Jette said...
You know, the minute I saw this story on Yahoo, I thought that it was a shame Martha isn't still writing for Cinematical, as she would have headlined the story "Dear God, No." And her comment proves I was absolutely right! The amusement doesn't make up for the news, though. Why do people want to remake Peckinpah? Bleah.
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3-30-2007 @ 7:45PM
jessica ferrara said...
Why is this movie "sacred"? So it was banned in England for a few years because of the intense violence--that doesn't make it a good movie. Beneath the show of violence is a weak and poorly developed story. The only female character is an incredibly offensive portrayal of a rape victim. It's nothing more than a grindhouse movie with Dustin Hoffman in it.
That's probably why it's being remade--they're making a profitable comeback. I've heard rumors of a remake of "Cannibal Holocaust" too. It won't be as shocking unless they up the ante on violence, which would be hard to do in that case.
I'm not exactly for remaking Straw Dogs, but I'm not really for remakes in general. But they have the potential to creatively improve the movie, and Straw Dogs could use that.
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3-31-2007 @ 12:52AM
Esoterikal said...
My main problem with this current trend of remaking 70s thrillers is... why does everything have to be relocated to america? It seems to go without saying, but it doesn't make any sense. The stories were originally set where they were for a reason. Think about it... would bullit work if you set it in holland? no! sure thats an extreme example, but nevertheless, whats the logic behind it?
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