The year 2010 is shaping up to be the one where the '80s come roaring back. This weekend's release of the Warner Bros. remake Clash of the Titans marks the first of many titles to open this year that originally came to light during the Reagan era.
Rounding out the year is the December release of
Tron Legacy, an update of 1982's
Tron.
Other current releases may not be '80s remakes, but they are set during the '80s, or take their inspirations from it. The recent
Hot Tub Time Machine was about a group of guys who are transported to 1986, while the title of an indie film set for release this summer,
1981, speaks for itself.
So what gives? Why all of sudden is it all about the '80s, all the time?
"There is now a group of executives, producers and filmmakers in Hollywood who've risen up in the past five years or so who grew up in this time," says Alex Young, a former 20th Century Fox executive who is producing the upcoming The A-Team and executive producing Predators and Wall Street 2.
Adds Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures: "You have a new generation of people making decisions about what to develop, what to make, and whose cultural tastes were shaped during that time period."
And what a time period it was. Entertainment options literally exploded during the '80s, with the advent of home video (remember Beta tapes?), personal computers (Commodore 64 anyone?), Atari and Nintendo games, and cable TV - which jumped from a handful of channels to about 50.
The Fox Network, too, was born in 1986, and less than a year later, was airing shows like Married with Children and 21 Jump Street, the latter of which is being developed as a feature film at Columbia.
"People who were kids back then weren't just focused on books and movies," says Young. "They were used to so many other entertainment options."
Those options included playing with G.I. Joe dolls and Transformers toys, both of which have been made into feature films by Paramount Pictures. And faster than you can yell: "You sunk my Battleship!" – kudos to the tuxedo-clad gentleman in the memorable '80s commercial – Universal Pictures begins production on a big screen version of the game this summer.
Back in the '80s, kids pretended to "wax on" and "wax off" to Mr. Miyagi's instructions in Karate Kid, and collected little blue creatures named Smurfs, which they watched every Saturday when cartoons ruled the morning programming.
Now, both properties hit the big screen in the summers of 2010 and 2011, respectively, courtesy of Columbia, who is also working on a new Ghostbusters feature.
Steve Pink, who directed the '80s themed Hot Tub Time Machine, says part of today's excitement for his peer set is the possibility of what these '80s films can become using today's technology.
"Tron was touted as the most advanced visual effects movie ever made at that time," he says. "Now the new one gets to live up to its potential. It's what the movie wanted to be but didn't have the computer [technology] to do."
The same goes for 1981's Clash of the Titans, according to actor Sam Worthington, who stars as Perseus in the new version.
"People have such fond memories of the movie when they were 10, but it hasn't really aged that well," says Worthington. "Hopefully we can give today's 10-year old boy the same thrill that adults experienced back when they first saw the original."
However, if a studio is going to shell out millions of dollars on a remake, there has to be a sound business decision behind it other than the fact that it originated in the 1980s.
Belgrad says certain properties are no-brainers to update, like 21 Jump Street about a group of young-looking police officers posing as high school students to investigate various issues.
"The idea of taking an adult and putting him back in a high school environment and replaying those hopes and dreams is a good idea in general," says Belgrad, citing films like Big, 17 Again, and Never Been Kissed as similar formulas that have worked in the past.
At the same time, with more families going to see movies together thanks to the success of "all-ages films" like the Pixar movies, Belgrad feels updates like The Karate Kid and Smurfs would have wide appeal to both the old and new generation.
"I think it's a good time to put into the world movies that parents have a familiarity with, have a fond recollection of, and feel it might be a good experience for their kids," he says.
Or it just simply may be the right time and place to resurrect a character and bring him into the 21st Century. Like Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.
"There's no more pressing issue in the lives of people right now than the financial crisis that we've undergone in the last two or three years," says Young, who says the new Wall Street is to the original 1987 film like The Color of Money was to The Hustler, including the introduction of a young new protégé in the form of Shia LaBeouf.
Add in the release of Universal Pictures' The Thing in 2011 and the upcoming Footloose remake, and you can be certain only more '80s properties will continue to be developed for the big screen. Poltergeist, Weird Science, Mannequin and an adaptation of the TV series Buck Rogers are just a few other titles currently being dusted off the shelf. For better or for worse, the '80s continues to live on in the 21st Century.
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