Posted on 11/25/2011 7:52:42 AM PST by Iron Munro
The long stagnating Red Dawn remake looks set to finally see the light of day, with a designated release date on the horizon. According to Box Office Mojo, the film will hit screens on November 2, 2012 – three years after filming wrapped.
A big black cloud has been hanging over Red Dawn in the form of the MGM bankruptcy saga, but, as reported here in September, independent distributor FilmDistrict struck a deal to finally get the film into cinemas, not matter how long it takes.
The film is the first foray into directing by former stuntman Dan Bradley, who once donned the hockey mask to play Jason Voorhees in Jason Lives: Friday The 13th: Part VI.
The movie is, of course, a remake of that cult classic from 1984 starring the late, great Patrick Swayze and a more innocent-looking Charlie Sheen (in his film debut) as the leaders of a bunch of teenagers who fight back when their small town in Colorado is taken over by Communist troops from the Soviet Union and Cuba.
It was made when the world braced for all-out warfare between the US and the USSR, at the height of the Cold War – when such an invasion on American soil didn’t seem that ludicrous. Nowadays it is a different story.
While the Red Dawn remake will follow very closely in the footsteps of the original, this time around it is the North Koreans doing the invading of the only genuine superpower left on the planet – after filmmakers had originally slated the Chinese as the villains of the piece, but changed their minds in order to give the movie more appeal in the increasingly lucrative market of China.
The likes of Thor himself Chris Hemsworth (taking on Swayze’s role), Adrianne Palicki (briefly, Wonder Woman), Josh Peck, Isabel Lucas and Josh Hutcherson will be doing the retaliating as the American teens.
Upon release on November 2, 2012, Red Dawn will be pitted against the comedy My Mother’s Curse and Pixar’s animated Wreck-It Ralph.
Time will tell if Red Dawn is worth the wait. But at least it’s not yet another alien invasion movie. Right?
This is all I needed to know.
Will China then play the role of the Soviet Union in the original movie, who supported the Cubans? So China would be the power behind the N. Koreans.
Nothing else would make sense.
So the North Koreans invade the United States? They should have stuck with the Chinese.
It’s going to be one hell of a stretch for a North Korean invasion to be credible. At least you could rationalize a Chinese one as they are getting to superpower status. North Korea can’t even feed itself.
You heard it here first, the movie will be a Box office failure
Agreed, it will not be “worth the wait.”
The first was was just a so-so movie, why would I watch a remake?
Now bow down to your Chinese overlords, Hollywood!
I see all the ethnic casting boxes have been checked off. Is there a gay couple?
As if the invasion by the Soviets in the first awful flick wasn't much of a stretch? The original was laughable.
The real enemy should be obama and his czars, appointees, and any friend he has. They are committed to the destruction of the country and seemingly are winning the battle.
Red Dawn, more like Red Yawn.
Multicultural cast, wonder who is the homosexual? Love the original, but this looks bad.
Another hollywood movie remake?
weak
It would be better IF the kids were in South Korea and US dependents of soldiers stationed in SK that all got killed in a surprise attack by the North. Now that would be interesting.
I think they should have went down the terrorist road. Having sleeper cells activate all at once being aided by Iran.
I know that we can’t have anything that puts Islam in a bad light.
Agreed. A US civil war movie with the libs and conservatives forming their own Countries would be more believable.
Why use the North Koreans as villains when Hollywood could have just used the Real Mexican Invasion that is occurring right now???
They could have called it Roja Dawn...
Three words that would have made the original Red Dawn not only plausible, but inevitable: President Ted Kennedy.
I don’t know if someone went around and made corrections for this photo or not... But if not, I give kudos to these actors for at least keeping their fingers outside of the trigger guards of their weapons. That is normally considered a “muscle memory” position learned from having been properly taught on the range. No one is being “swept” with a muzzle, either. It’s nice to see a photo in which getting the gun up in front of the camera (that is why you used to see the star put his handgun up next to his/her face in the close-ups - it had nothing to do with tactics) was less important than demonstrating proper safety and technique...
At least they had the dorks keep their fingers off the triggers. I wonder who got to them and told them that?
This is a mis-characterization. China has an annual quota of 20 American movies a year. Red Dawn will not make that quota - its villain, North Korea, is an ally the party characterizes as being as close to China as lips and teeth (in the quaint Chinese phraseology). I'd say MGM is recasting the villain so that its other movies (including the James Bond franchise) aren't permanently excluded from China's annual quota of American movies.
Why not make the movie 100% Hollywood politically-correct, totally ridiculous, and a total box-office failure by making the invaders a group of Christian-fundamentalist survivalists hiding out in the back woods of Idaho?
Two comments.
First, the original was one of the most moving motion pictures I've ever seen. I walked a mile back from the theater to my house, with my grown daughter who had seen it with me. Neither of us could say a word.
Second, in my experience remakes are never as good as the original. I'll probably not bother to see this one, unless I see some really spectacular reviews. The mere fact that the producers would avoid a real adversary, like China, in the interests of making money, tells me all I need to know about them and the movie.
WOLVERINES!
...I.'m sure the North Korean Army is well fed and well equipped.
...Sleep tight!
The NorKs invading? Riiiiight.
If this one is anything like the original, it’s going to make the liberals’ heads explode.
My eyes! Myyy eeeyyyeeesss!!!
Oh wait, sorry...that's a news item, not a movie plot. :)
Your evil knows no bounds...
As if the invasion by the Soviets in the first awful flick wasn’t much of a stretch ...
Yes, but at least the logistics were there - The Russians poured across the Bering Strait by the millions & it was several latin american communist countries that flooded into South USA via Mexico.
North Korea?? Now THATS a joke
The executive discussion probably went along these lines:
“Who should the enemy be? Muslim hordes?”
“No, can’t afford to put our lives at risk”
“Red Chinese?”
“No, can’t afford to write off the Chinese market. Too much money there.”
“I know? How about Tea Party Patriots?”
“Yeah! That’s the ticket.”
I’m wondering why it didn’t play out like that.
In 1984 the premise was at least plausible as Americans perceived the Soviets were stronger than they were. But the NOKOs? Really?
How about this. Teenage children of investment bankers from the Manhattan are forced to use Krugerrands to buy toothbrushes as Chine.. err.. Asian bankers take over Wall Street in the new blockbuster: Red Debt.
At least the writers could have made a more plausible script than this piece of crap.
You folks here are right though this movie will be in the discount bin quick.
While the Red Dawn remake will follow very closely in the footsteps of the original, this time around it is the North Koreans doing the invading of the only genuine superpower left on the planet – after filmmakers had originally slated the Chinese as the villains of the piece, but changed their minds in order to give the movie more appeal in the increasingly lucrative market of China.
This is all I needed to know.
In the original film the Chinese were our allies in the fight while the Europeans sat it out.
How realistic was that in the original?
I suspect that just like the original there will be some historical explanations about why the N. Koreans were invading. For example, a link with a new Islamic superstate that holds most of the oil supplies working with a united Korea and a newly reformed Soviet-bloc.
China stays neutral due to Korean nuclear weapons on their doorstep and the importance of US-China economic ties.
Maybe even Mexico is now controlled by drug lords and they’ve been promised California, Arizona and Nevada if the invasion is successful.
Something like that.
That was roughly the premise of the Jericho TV series, though the network killed it just as it was getting interesting.
The Judy Garland remake of “A Star is Born” was pretty darn good. Ditto “The Magnificent Seven” which was a remake of “The Seven Samurai.”
Tell you what, go see and tell us how great or stupid is was. I will not be going.
If you call 50s era technology well equipped, I suppose so. They really don’t have much in the way of modern equipment, and they don’t have the funds for much training.
Yeah, I noticed and appreciated that too.
ABSURD premise: North Korea has its hands full already with invading ITSELF.It can only threaten the rest of the world with its nukes, if anything,
and that doesn’t constitute an “invasion”. China, also is not about to physically invade the USA: the real danger with China is that they can do pretty much what they want in the world, especially with us, because we “owe them”.
The real danger as everyone knows unmistakably for the last decade at least, is Radical Islam. This movie may have some fanciful notions that it will be taken as a “parable”, with N. Korea ‘sitting in’ for Islam, but I can’t see how they could even make that believable, since they’re starting from a chicken**it premise, and hence are showing a major failure of artistic and political nerve from the get-go.
“I see all the ethnic casting boxes have been checked off.”
They’ve got it pretty much covered, except for the Chinese Karate expert girl with the large American fake boobs.
There will most assuredly be a gay message somewhere in the movie. Bet on it.
Think I’ll save my money and wait until I find the DVD at a yard sale for a buck.
Oh, almost forgot something. The black guy will be killed while saving the life of the redneck white racist.
Ok, so who is helping the norks in the remake? In the original, the cubans invaded with nukes, navy, advisors, and air support from the soviets.
the Norks, just as the cubans, don’t have what it takes to pull something like this off all by themselves. Lets just make a list of possible allies(excluding china)
venezuela
iran
syria
PLO
pakistan?
indonesia?
I can’t think of any others. I don’t see any on the list with a navy capable of getting it done.
Alright, how about a scenario? We’re gonna need a perfect storm kind of a situation. Our military will need to be decimated in the blink of an eye. Lets say we have a massive troop buildup (over and above what we already have) in the middle east to do something with iran and syria and pakistan. Then they use a coordinated nuke attack on their own soil to wipe out our troops. This leaves us in a weakened state and the norks decide to take advantage. more nukes are launched on america and then a ground invasion.
there’s still the problem of our navy. There’s still the problem of our own nukes. Nobody on that list has enough nukes to take out all of our nukes.
Ok, cyber war. after the coordinated nuke attack on our forces in the asia/middle east, there is a massive cyber war waged that knocks out our satellites and most all of our communications. THEN the norks begin a massive ground invasion.
Its kinda tenuous but I guess it will work in a movie.
By the time modern day hollywood gets done re-writing it, it’s going to be about armed Christian tea-parters attacking minorities, and the OWS protesters will be cast as the heroes defending the minorities.
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