The response usually includes a condemnation of the dearth of new ideas in Hollywood; accusatory statements of the industry merely feeding on itself instead of trying something innovative, and general creative laziness. All of which can absolutely be true, and, indeed, has been proven to be true time and again as new takes on ideas from the past bear out the notion that that’s exactly where they should have stayed. But at the same time, we’ve seen growing evidence that, in the right creative hands, reboots offer the opportunity to reinvigorate a once thriving franchise, character or concept and make it extremely palatable for one segment of the audience that may not be overly familiar with the original incarnation, as well as the one that does and would like to see it live on in some form – even if they don’t realize it when word of said reboot first gets out.
The first recent example that comes to mind is the James Bond franchise with 2006’s Casino Royale, which introduced Daniel Craig as 007 and brought the agent back to his earliest days (though set in a modern world). While today Craig has secured his position (as far as many are concerned) as the Alpha Bond, at the time there was absolute outrage among the global 007 enthusiasts. After all, Pierce Brosnan seemed to be handling things nicely, beginning with 1995’s GoldenEye and then continuing with 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies, 1999’s The World is Not Enough and 2002’s Die Another Die, which, incidentally, became the highest grossing Bond film up until that point. When producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli nonetheless announced that they would be revamping the series and reintroducing Bond at the start of his career with a new actor in the role, people thought they were mad; that they were violating the axiom of not fixing something that wasn’t in need of repair. But, to their credit, they saw something that Bond fans did not and Casino Royale became a critical and commercial hit, instantly establishing that Daniel Craig was indeed Bond.
Flash forward three years to 2009 and the release of director JJ Abrams and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman’s Star Trek, arguably the most polarizing reboot ever. The idea was to inject Trek with a little Red Bull in the form of Star Wars-like energy coupled with the establishment of a new timeline that would allow Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew of the starship Enterprise to start their adventures anew without impacting on the continuity of everything that had come before. MANY people argued that these changes weren’t necessary, but, in fact, they were. Star Trek was all but dead. Enterprise had limped off the air without making much of an impact (unfortunately – the show is extremely underrated) and Star Trek: Nemesis was ignored in its brief run in theatres, with the official magazine shutting down and even the website more or less fading away. But thanks to the efforts of Abrams/Kurtzman/Orci and the rest of the film’s cast and crew, new life was pumped into the final frontier, Star Trek was suddenly mainstream and, most importantly, people began rediscovering the original version. Now anticipation is high for the next installment – though the one misstep in this particular reboot has been waiting SO long to get a sequel going, perhaps losing what would have been built-in momentum had things come together more quickly.
This summer skepticism was abundant with word that 20th Century Fox’s reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise, in the form of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (directed by Rupert Wyatt, written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver), was going to be released. While there is no question that the original film series (which spanned five entries from 1968 to 1973) was a sci-fi phenomenon in its day, there was little to indicate (including Tim Burton’s financially successful, though critically scorned 2001 remake of the original) that there would be an audience waiting for this one and that it would be received as anything less than a tired joke at this point. But the one thing that critics, moviegoers and even old time fans did not expect was that Rise of the Planet of the Apes would be a film with HEART; that the motion capture created apes would be flesh and blood “human beings”. And, because everyone kept their eye on story, character and heart, it seems as though the entire franchise has been reborn with Fox no doubt going to be announcing a sequel at any time.
The jury is still out on next year’s Dark Shadows, the Tim Burton version of the 1960s soap opera that casts Johnny Depp in the role of “reluctant vampire” Barnabas Collins. That one will truly be the great experiment, because, like Star Trek and Planet of the Apes, if it’s a hit, it will reinvigorate the entire concept and bring the original (a true phenomenon in its day) back into the pop culture forefront. If not, then Dark Shadow fades into the annals of time once the generation of kids who ran home from school every day to watch it is gone.
Then, of course, there’s the DC Comics relaunch of 52 titles, doing away in the majority of instances with old continuity and starting things from scratch. Many fans look at this as nothing more than a massive publicity stunt; that the company will wait a year or so and then do another crisis on a helluva lot of Earths to preserve what is working, do away with what is not and bring back what the fans truly love. The corporate line, however, claims that this isn’t the case; that this is their bold new step into the future and an opportunity to introduce their line – especially because digital versions will be available day and date with their printed counterparts – to a whole new audience that might not head to a comic shop, but would far more likely be willing to download a comic to read on their iPad or other such device.
Is this, then, an act of desperation (though one that could be working – the new Justice League #1 has pre-orders of 200,000 copies)? In an interview with Rolling Stone, writer Grant Morrison muses, “There's always going to be a bit of that, because comics sales are so low, people are willing to try anything these days. It's just plummeting. It's really bad from month to month. May was the first time in a long time that no comic sold over 100,000 copies, so there's a decline… There's a real feeling of things just going off the rails, to be honest. Superhero comics. The concept is quite a ruthless concept, and it's moved on, and it's kind of abandoned the first-stage rocket [comics]. And moving on to movies, where it can be more powerful, more effective. The definition of a meme is an idea that wants to replicate, and it's found a better medium through which to replicate, games, movies. It would be a shame, because one of the most amazing things about those universes is that they exist, there's a paper continuum that reflects the history.”
Morrison, of course, knows from whence he speaks in that he is writing the revamped Action Comics, which returns the Superman character back to his base roots. And as far as the Man of Steel is concerned, the timing for this reboot has probably never been better. Let’s face it (and this is coming from someone with a lifetime’s worth of fascination with Big Blue), while the “S” symbol may be one of the most recognizable in the world, the character itself doesn’t hold the public in sway in the manner that he once did. To many, Superman is passe, a relic from childhood that isn’t necessarily one that they want to embrace as they get older. And today’s kids seem to be more in to Batman, Spider-Man and Iron Man than Supes. So between the efforts of Morrison and DC, as well as director Zack Snyder with his currently-shooting Man of Steel, it’s quite possible that Superman will indeed become a fictional champion of the world again, allowing this 73-year-old icon to capture the collective imagination once more.
All of which comes together to serve the notion that if approached not just from a commercial point of view, but, instead, driven by genuine creative spirit, the reboot can successfully allow those things that once touched us deeply to live in our hearts again.
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The world of Planet of the Apes is exploding with the global success of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, new comics, new illustrated novels, new non-fiction books, a sequel about to be given the green light, etc. Explore the full world of the Apes with news, interviews and much more. Just click on the image below.