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‘Twas Only A Matter Of Time: Paramount To Remake ‘The Monster Squad’
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The Movie God   |  @   |  

The Monster Squad

Deadline Hollywood is reporting something that many have expected for a long while now, but it is no less painful to read. That’s right, Paramount Pictures has decided to remake the 1987 childhood classic, The Monster Squad.

If the project does indeed happen, Rob Cohen, who was a producer and executive producer on the original movie, already has high hopes to direct the remake. Considering that he’s emotionally attached to the old movie, you would think that he would be an ideal candidate to create a faithful reproduction here, but this might not be the case. Cohen does have plenty of directing experience since then, but with his credits including Dragonheart, The Skulls, The Fast and the Furious, xXx, Stealth, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, most Monster Squad die hards will shudder in fear at the thought.

The Monster Squad is pretty much only loved by those who saw it as a kid, and that’s why it’s so hard for us to swallow a remake. There’s no denying the massive amount of ’80s cheese it wears, but its nostalgia is part of its appeal. The major appeal, however, is the monsters themselves. The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Wolf Man, Frankenstein, and the Mummy were fantastic creations for that time and that kind of movie, and they still hold up well to this day. Dracula is the main evil, but he was in his kind of old suave, eccentric attire with the super-slick hair, which worked enough back then, but I don’t think it would work so much now.

The late and legendary Stan Winston worked on the monsters in the movie, and if they don’t put the same amount of passion into new monsters, they will indeed fail. The only way this movie works is worth seeing, is if CGI doesn’t touch it, and they just modernize the great amount of fun that the original had.

The ’87 movie was written and directed by Fred Dekker, who didn’t do a ton of things in his career, but certainly made a huge impact on kids of the ’80s with Monster Squad. Aside from that, he wrote and directed Night of the Creeps and RoboCop 3, as well as wrote House and House II (two more personal childhood favorites of mine), Ricochet, and a few episodes of both Tales from the Crypt and Star Trek: Enterprise.

After this story broke, Dekker actually contacted Ain’t It Cool News and shared with them his thoughts on the news and the thought of Cohen directing.

It’d be one thing if another filmmaker wanted to soil my sandbox… but if it weren’t for Rob Cohen, the original movie would never have been made. So I don’t begrudge him wanting to play in his own sandbox. I wish him well, and thank him for the opportunity he gave me in the first place.

The original was also written by Shane Black, who as an actor appeared in Predator and Dekker’s Night of the Creeps and RoboCop 3. He went on to realize his writing talents and penned every Lethal Weapon movie, The Last Boyscout, Last Action Hero, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. More recently he wrote and directed Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which was one of my favorite films of the decade.

Bonus: Leonardo Cimino, who played Scary German Guy in The Monster Squad, is totally still alive and even though he hasn’t worked in a few years (the man is 92-years-old), he should still be cast in the very same role immediately.

2 Comments »

  1. I’m not digging this at all. This is one of my all time favorite movies. I think my VHS recording of it broke from too much play. I agree about not using any CGI. I agree with a lot of what’s said in this post, especially about Scary German Guy coming back for round 2.

    Comment by BrookeReviews — March 19, 2010 @ 10:37 pm

  2. If it wasn’t for this past Halloween, I would’ve never been able to fully appreciate this news haha

    Comment by Jen-Jen — March 24, 2010 @ 11:25 am

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