A few weeks ago fellow AITH newbie Eric Walkuski reported on David Goyer’s comments regarding the remake of SCANNERS, and in that article he hinted at the “shoestring budget” that the original had to deal with. And of course, for anyone with a brain, that meant he was going to up the ante with the CGI and make some serious head explosions go down. Well now, the man has pretty much officially come out and said it himself. As he says “SCANNERS is a great movie but it’s also very dated to a certain extent,” said Goyer. “Largely in socio-political terms it’s very dated. Cronenberg’s movies are always very political and very specific. That original film had a lot to do with corporate America and the Reagan years and all of that stuff and that’s not what’s happening now. So my whole thing was, and I love that movie and I don’t want to ruin that movie, so it’s not a slavish remake. It’s kind of taking the best stuff from that and trying to apply the same sociopolitical template.”
And while that quote was talking to the socio-political update needed, the next quote is what has the CGI experts licking their chops. “Of course we’re going to blow up a head but we have to go further than blow up a head because we’re 20 years down the line. With ‘Scanners,’ it’s just fun to know I can just go for it and I don’t have to do the toned down version of it.”
I’m not sure how I feel about this remake. I guess the remake machine has worn me down, and now I’m not going fight it anymore. They’re going to happen regardless, so I guess it’s good that a competent man like Goyer is writing it instead of others. The man who will be directing the film will be Darren Lynn Bousman.
One reassuring thing about Goyer writing the script is his admiration for Cronenberg and the original SCANNERS. He says “I figured the best way to do it would be finish it and send it to him and either get his blessing or take my lashings.”
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