IreneCara Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Fan Rant: Generation 'Fame'
Filed under: Music & Musicals », MGM », Fandom », Movie Marketing », Remakes and Sequels », Fan Rant », Trailers and Clips »
Just before I get started I want to make one thing perfectly clear: this fan rant has nothing to do with me hating remakes in principle. Instead, this rant is about fame (as a movie and a concept) and a disturbing trend I noticed in the marketing for the shiny new Fame hitting theaters this fall. So let's start at the beginning, shall we? I was surfing channels whey I first happened across the latest trailer for the musical update that does a little cross-promotion with the boy-wizard, Harry Potter. So as I sat there watching this bizarre combination of Hogwarts and The School of Performing Arts, it occurred to me that this trailer seemed to almost being equating 'fame' with magic. This new version of Fame seemed to have none of the pain, suffering, and sacrifice (except of the mildest teen-angst ways imaginable) of the original -- and that's when I started to get a little ticked.
Alan Parker's Fame was a part of a larger trend in the late 70s and 80s to make 'grittier' musicals (along with films like A Chorus Line or Fosse's All That Jazz) that took the "let's put on a show" tradition of musicals and revealed all of it's flaws and the screwed-up people who inhabited the business of making fantasy. What made Fame (1980) such a stand-out for me as a young girl was that suddenly the idea of stardom didn't seem so great. Instead, it became a deal with the devil, and Parker's film seemed to keep that idea under the surface of the uplifting finale and songs about lunch programs.
After the jump: why a Fame remake has me so worked up, and a glimpse of the film that started it all...
1980 Musical 'Fame' Being Remade by MGM
Filed under: Drama », Music & Musicals », Deals », MGM », Fandom », Remakes and Sequels »
Call me a pessimist, but I can't help but think that as soon as a studio decides to remake a movie from my childhood, it can't help but pale in comparison. The Hollywood Reporter recently announced that MGM has partnered with 300's Mark Canton to put together a remake of the 1980 musical Fame. The original film, directed by Alan Parker (Evita) starred Irene Cara, Laura Dean, and Barry Miller as students at the New York School of Performing Arts and became known for its signature line "I'm gonna live forever!," which you can be certain will be used in the remake. MGM's Rick Sands has confirmed that a writer and a director have been hired, but he was keeping quiet about any further details about casting.
Sands is also not making any promises about how close the new remake will stick to the original. However, he did comment on some of the changes saying, "We'll update it, (but) we'll still keep some of the songs. The script is being written right now, but we are keeping it under wraps. There will be a strong musical component, though," which makes it sound like Fame is going to be bottled into the new dance film craze with a little of the old music thrown in to appease the people who are nostalgic for the original. You have to admire a musical that can work in dance numbers in between story lines about abortion, drug abuse, and sexual exploitation. It's also worth noting that it won an Oscar for the original song (Fame), and spawned a TV series and a long-running musical. Oh well, as long as they don't mess with Hot Lunch ... some things are sacred.
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