“Seven Days In May,” “Seconds,” “Grand Prix,” “The Vikings” & “The Final Countdown” Will Get Remade
Peter Douglas, son of Kirk Douglas and half-brother of Michael Douglas, has produced a handful of movies over the years like “Whip It!” most recently, and a handful of titles through the ’80s and ’90s including “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and both “Fletch” films. But he may have stumbled across his most lucrative (and worst) idea yet: remaking the movies his dad starred in and/or produced.
Deadline reports that Peter Douglas has put forward a production slate with his Vincent Pictures that will see a trio of John Frankenheimer films, including “Seven Days In May,” “Seconds” and “Grand Prix,” and Kirk Douglas pics “The Vikings” & “The Final Countdown” get readied for remakes. The plan is to shop the projects to filmmakers who already have producing, financing and distributing deals in place to get these made. Of course, the big question is whether or not anyone is going to want to step in Frankenheimer’s shoes and try and do him one better. That trio of films is pretty solid — okay, “Grand Prix” isn’t great but really, who is going to top a three hour, split screen racing pic with Toshiro Mifune and Yves Montand among the cast? — and sure, okay, we’ll buy remakes of the seafaring “The Vikings” and the time travel lark “The Final Countdown.”
But to be honest, something about the whole enterprise seems kind of cheap and lazy. Clearly, Peter Douglas has some eye for talent; “Whip It!” was a sweet and smart little film that unfortunately didn’t do what it deserved at the box office. It almost feels like a reflexive move to just dust off some classics and put them through the remake machine. So yeah, we’re not thrilled, but hopefully these will just stay in development hell where they belong. If you’re not familiar with the films we’re not gonna run down them here, but check out the trailers after the jump and do yourself a favor and throw ’em on your Netflix queue, particularly the Frankenheimer films.
