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.
Others include this month's A Nightmare on Elm Street, the June release of The Karate Kid and the big screen adaptation of '80s TV show The A-Team.
This fall, moviegoers will get even more '80s updates with Red Dawn, Predators (of the Predator franchise) and the return of '80s movie icon Gordon Gekko in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
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.
In addition, the upcoming Sex and The City 2 features plenty of '80s flashbacks and MacGruber is an homage to the TV show, MacGyver.
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.
Click a publication to see only articles published in it: Huffington Post, Hollywood Reporter, Fade In magazine.
Fandango 2010: The 80s are back in movies!
Fandango: Leaders of the Pack
It began last fall with Beverly Hills Chihuahua, followed by the animated Bolt, which led to the Christmas release of Marley & Me and now the current Hotel For Dogs. Meanwhile, the DVD market is also in on the trend, with December’s release of the umpteenth Beethoven installment, Beethoven’s Big Break, and the February DVD release of another Air Bud movie, Space Buddies.
“In this economy, with the lack of job security, the housing market being in trouble and it feeling like a harsh, cold world out there, people turn back to what is essential,” says Hotel For Dogs director Thor Freudenthal. “And that’s having those around you that you love, and having a family that looks out for each other. Dogs are part of so many families – they just belong to that picture. That’s why these films are very appealing.”
Click here to read the full story on Fandango.
MORE OF ZORIANNA'S ARTICLES ON FANDANGO:
Marlon Wayans on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra here.
Seth Rogen on The Green Hornet here.
Paul Blart: Mallcop vs. Observe & Report here.
G.W. Bush's film legacy here.
Observations about 2008's summer movie season here.
Huffington Post: Iron Man Meets Iron Woman
Can you work tomorrow morning on the movie Iron Man?"
The e-mail from the casting director caught me off guard to say the least; not because I'm a journalist and not an actress and not because this had all started with a casual conversation with Avi Arad the movie's producer. It caught me off guard because I had just unplugged myself from a breast pump and if you have no idea what that's like then picture being hooked up to one of those electric pumps they hook onto cows to drain them of their milk so the world can have their Sugar Smacks. It's impossible to think of yourself in front of a movie camera when you don't feel worthy of the photo booth at Target. So of course I wrote back, "Yes!"Huffington Post: You Don't Know Dick
Up until recently, Hollywood wasn't doing Dick. But now they are. I'm talking about going balls out, literally, on full-frontal male nudity in films.
This month, two new releases boast "the man-gina" as co-star: Universal Pictures' Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and New Line Cinema's Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
And it's about time. Women have been prancing nude on-screen for decades but only recently has equality reared its penis-shaped head.
