
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 23, 1993                   TAG: 9307230128
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DEJA VIEW

It hit me in the middle of seeing "Jurassic Park" what Spielberg, Lucas, Carpenter and all those other directors are doing: remaking the movies they enjoyed as kids.

How do I know? I enjoyed them, too.

George Lucas agrees that "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" are bigger versions of old Saturday matinee serials. "Silverado" had all the cowboy cliches except the comic sidekick (but "Rustler's Rhapsody" had that). A third version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is coming, to join remakes of "The Thing" and even of low-budget Roger Corman horrors like "Little Shop of Horrors" (now a musical!) and "Not of This Earth."

Remakes about Tarzan (starring Bo Derek), the Lone Ranger (with Tonto speaking better English than the masked man) and King Kong prove that, even with bigger budgets, it is possible to make those characters dull. Batman, Superman and Flash Gordon fared better. Now films are raiding the tube; a second one based on the "Addams Family" TV series is on the way, and there are plans to do "Lost in Space" for the big screen.

Just one thing worries me: The next generation of filmmakers won't have anything left to remake except remakes.

by CNB