For the last five years I’ve had a poster in my room of Fritz Lang’s German Expressionist techno-classic METROPOLIS, not because I loved the movie, but because I was trying to impress. In university, the posters you have on your while are vital into shaping who other people perceive you to be, and that's all I cared about. The poster (which you can see on the right) is utterly badass, and having written a paper on early German Expressionism, I considered myself a fan of the film even though I hadn’t seen it. Lame I know, but you do what you gotta do to attract cool filmmaker friends, right?
Now Variety is reporting that producer Thomas Schuehly (ALEXANDER) wants to remake the 1927 silent classic with Mario Kassar, the man responsible for showing us Sharon Stone’s gazoongwats again in BASIC INSTINCT 2. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Since METROPOLIS is one my favourite movies that I haven’t seen, I like it the way it is, but I can’t argue that with the right creative team behind it, an updated version could be spectacular. At the time of its production, METROPOLIS was the most expensive silent film ever produced, costing the equivalent of $200 million today. The film depicts a world where the ‘thinkers’ live above ground in luxury, while the ‘workers’ toil endlessly underground.
Schuehly had this to say "With the overwhelming role technology plays in our daily lives, the growing gap between rich and poor, including the gradual elimination of the middle class, the story of 'Metropolis' is a frightening reflection of our society that takes place in an all too possible not too distant future." Sure pal, enough with the thesis statements and make a good movie, alright? The Producers want to work with a name director. Terry Gilliam, anyone?
Extra Tidbit:
Scheulhy produced THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN, directed by Gilliam.
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