Risk-averse Hollywood doubles down on remakes and sequels
Independence Day: Resurgence is the latest summer blockbuster to evoke the memories of a decades-old hit. Hollywood, and America by extension, seems eager to dive into nostalgia
Hollywood is the kind of entity that gets it. Or, at least, wants us to get it. Remakes have been around for a long time, with movie studios really parking themselves in our memory about a decade ago. In 2005, some of the biggest releases included Bewitched, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Bad News Bears, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, King Kong and Herbie: Fully Loaded, the last one carrying the most quaint notion of all, that of Lindsay Lohan as a reliable commodity.
But entertainment nostalgia is cresting in a new way this spring and summer. Not the vogue for rapid-fire sequels or shared-universes — those represent a whole different, X-Men-ian problem. I’m talking about characters and properties that have been absent from screens for a decade or more – like the past hit evoked by Jeff Goldblum in the Independence Day: Resurgence trailer when he intones, “It’s definitely bigger than the last one” – yet are suddenly here, hand outstretched, seeking our time and money like an alumni pledge drive. Come support us or live for all eternity with the guilt of denying your past.
By the time the calendar turns to Labour Day, American audiences will have had an utterly eye-glazing number of these throwbacks: Ghostbusters, The Legend of Tarzan, Finding Dory, Absolutely Fabulous, Ben-Hur, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Barbershop: Back in Business, The Jungle Book , Zoolander 2 and ID2. Add in titles whose heyday came in another era ( Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out of the Shadows ) or simply feel as though they came in another era (Steven Spielberg’s kiddie-adventure The BFG) and you realise how much of the multiplex circa 2016 is meant to remind you of another year, or that you’re really old. It’s the creaky knees of cinema.
Samuel L. Jackson (left) and Alexander Skarsgård in The Legend of Tarzan.
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The simple explanation is that these new films are easier to give a green light because studios don’t like taking risks. And what could be less risky than a familiar name – especially if you’re now able to revisit it with all the tricks of the effects era?
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That’s part of it, I think, but only part. Film executives intuit that these movies possess another virtue: nostalgia. It’s one thing if you, as a member of the target audience, already know a title. It’s another if that title once caused a flooding in the brain’s pleasure centres. That presents an idea far more potent than awareness – the power of association.
Ben Stiller (left), Owen Wilson (middle) and Penelope Cruz in Zoolander 2.
