LOS ANGELES – With the release of Arrival of a Train at a Station (2018), a remake of the Lumière Brothers’ record-breakingly successful film Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896), the last original film has been remade for a modern audience.
As a drought of originality and creativity hit Hollywood in recent years, it was natural for filmmakers to mine previously made films and reimagine them for an audience that may not have seen them the first time around. But as producers fully mined back catalogue of film history, without new original films planted in their place, an increasing number of films at the multiplex were remakes, reaching 100% in late 2012.
With the release of Jumanji, Flatliners and Murder on the Orient Express as remakes in late 2017, Hollywood execs were under the impression that they had stripped the back catalogue completely bare. But Bob Iger at Disney re-reviewed the work of the Lumière Brothers and realized they had missed one, and quickly allocated a $250 million budget.
“I think fans of the original will be pleased with how we updated the story,” said star of Arrival of a Train at a Station Ryan Reynolds, “I’m happy that we remade the last film and I am happy that I can have more money. Thank you for money.”
The remake has the same plot of the original, with the eponymous train safely arriving at a station without incident, but director Zack Snyder added several explosions and CGI effects to adapt it to the expectations of a modern audience.
So far the remake has fallen short of box office expectations. “I think we missed something essential that the original film had, but didn’t translate to the remake somehow,” mused Producer Bob Iger. “There were a lot less people screaming and running away from the screen than the original.”
When asked what plans he had for the future now he stated, “Reboot X-Men, I guess?”
At press time, moviegoers were getting pretty excited to be disappointed about the wide variety of re-remakes, re-re-remakes, and re-re-re-remakes slated to come out this summer.
