'Warriors' Remake Set in LA

Everyday more and more news piles up of needless unoriginal ideas in the form of remakes. Yesterday news broke on a few notable films including Commando and I loath the fact that they are even being considered, but there are and they are happening. Tony Scott who has "The Taking of Pelham 123" releasing June 12th recently spoke with Rotten Tomatoes about the upcoming remake he is directing of the 1979 cult smash hit The Warriors. Scott explains that he is not doing a straight remake, but merely using the story as framework for a new film. Checkout what he had to say below...

Tony Scott tells Rotten Tomatoes, "I'm not doing a straight remake." He explains, "I love the original Warriors and I'm using the same basic story. It's really still 10 guys stuck at point B and they need to get back to point A." The Top Gun director next revealed how the film will be changed. He continued, "I'm going to set it in Los Angeles and it's going to be a kind of study of gang culture in LA today." Study of gang culture? The remake of the film will still have the same premise, with the Warriors being framed for killing a gang leader who has been attempting to make peace with all of the gangs within the city, the Warriors must then make a dangerous cross-city mission back to their home turf struggling to stay alive along the way. So where's the study of gang culture? Furthermore, when has there ever a been a gang leader really trying to bring peace? Gangs are inherently trying to get as powerful as possible, they don't stop and say, "Hey can't we all just sell our crack in peace."

Tony Scott continues to says he is interested in changing the landscape of the film and not just making a straight forward remake by bringing the update to Los Angeles. He clarified, "It's a city which is horizontal. New York is vertical, all skyscrapers, and Los Angeles is horizontal." To be fair, in the original film, the Warriors are on a horizontal landscape throughout the entire film, they never make use of the "vertical" landscape in New York, making Scott's notion that "New York is vertical" pointless. Los Angeles is ultimately far more spread out than New York, that is for sure, and having the gang traveling a much further horizontal distance could be interesting if done right.

Tony Scott also explains that he wants real authenticty and has already met with many gangs within Los Angeles. "I've been meeting the various gangs as part of the research." Scott continued, "I never meet the gang leader, always his second-in-command. I have to do this little tap-dance and sell the film to them. I've met them all, Crips, Bloods, The 18th Street Gang, The Vietnamese and so on." The big question is do they want to be a part of the film. Scott answered, "They all love The Warriors. So it was, 'yeah, fuck yeah we'll be in that!" If Scott does in fact utilize all of the Los Angeles gangs he definately has a particular shot in mind. He explained, "I'm hoping to get a hundred thousand real gang-members standing on the Vincent Thomas Bridge for one shot." Holy shit, 100,000 gang members could definately pose a threat!

I'll say it again, I hate remakes! I wished studios would laugh in the face of the guys pitching all of these re-hashes. I dream of a world where the studio executive looks at Will Smith and says, "You want to put your runny-nose brat in a remake of The Karate Kid, get the fuck out of here with that garbage!" Instead I get, "Hey Mr. Smith, that sounds like a perfect idea. How about we get Jackie Chan to play Mr. Miyagi." While Tony Scott does say alot of the right things like, "I'm not doing a straight remake" and "it's a study of gang culture today in LA" the film is at it's core just a REMAKE! I am very skeptical of this project, but will hold my final judgement untill I see something viable. For now, the film on imdb is slated for 2010 release date, but with no formal announcement made by Scott or the studios involved. This most likely will be Scott's next film and I would expect an announcement to quickly follow the release of his new film starring John Travolta and Denzel Washington "The Taking of Pelham 123". More news to follow, as it develops...

What say you? Are you willing to give a Los Angeles Warriors film a try? Can Scott pull off a film that will be as regarded as the original? Strikeback...