Bye Bye Birdie Remake

Remakes remakes remakes! As most of you know by now, in principle I really don’t have a problem with remakes in general as long as they adhear to my 4 rules for making a remake. I think each film and project has to be judged on it’s own merits. A lot of people will say: “But John, 9 out of 10 remakes sucks”. Well… maybe that’s true… but 8.5 out of 10 movies in general suck… so it’s really not that far off is it?

Anyway, if you look at my 4 rules for remakes list, you’ll agree that a film like Bye Bye Birdie is a perfect candidate to be remade, and it looks like the director from Hairspray is the one who is going to do it. The folks over at MTV gives us this:

“Bedtime Stories” director Adam Shankman may do what no one in Hollywood has managed so far — bring back big screen musicals. With “Hairspray” under his belt and a deal to direct “Bob: The Musical,” Shankman is stepping in to help Columbia revive its remake of “Bye Bye Birdie.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, he’ll be producing and developing the film, but isn’t set to direct just yet.

“Birdie” debuted on Broadway in 1958, but probably is best known for the 1963 movie version that starred Ann-Margret and Dick Van Dyke. It centers on a popular singer named Conrad Birdie (who was loosely based on Elvis Presley) who is about to be shipped off to the army, but decides to give one lucky girl from his fan club a farewell kiss. Of course, love, mayhem, and musical numbers follow.

Apparently this is one they’ve been trying to get done for some time… even SNL’s Tina Fey has tried writing it to no avail.

I’m not really big on movie musicals. Having said that I must admit I really enjoyed Hairspray and as most of you know Moulin Rouge ranks up there in my conversations of favorite films of all time (somewhere in my top 50). So why not?