They Live remake without the glasses? What’s next, no bubblegum?

This may be sacrilege among horror fans who are partial to HALLOWEEN and THE THING, but I think THEY LIVE might be my favorite John Carpenter movie. It’s at least battling for a spot with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and the two previously mentioned films. So I was obviously hesitant when I heard they’re working on a THEY LIVE remake. But now my hesitance has turned into outright anger as producer Eric Newman told io9 that they’re considering making the film without the trademark sunglasses.

Without the glasses? That’s the whole point of the film! Newman said, “We’re kind of exploring different versions of what is that thing that allows you to see. But I’m not going to tell you what it is…It might be something different than sunglasses.”

There was no real reason given though reading between the lines, they seem to want to both modernize the tale while giving it a little extra dose of reality. I think in a world where 3D has gone mad, using glasses would be a still-relevant touch. And the reluctance of people to try on sunglasses from a crazy homeless guy is exactly what leads to Rowdy Roddy Piper fighting Keith David for five minutes!

Let’s hope cooler heads prevail and they can keep the sunglasses in the film. Otherwise it’d be like TRON: LEGACY without the identity discs…