Friday, August 15, 2008

Candyman Reinvented as a White Guy?

I guess it was inevitable. Shock Till You Drop is now reporting that Sony Pictures is considering a reboot of one of the 1990s most popular horror franchises, Candyman. What's more, there is some thought being given to recasting the hook-handed urban legend killer with a white actor. Genre fave Tony Todd originated the character in 1992, and made it into one of horror's only black icons.

I know it's been said before, but where is this remake frenzy going to leave us in a couple of decades? I recently picked up an excellent book called The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane, about American films of the 1970s. I was amazed to see how very few of them were remakes, and appalled by how many of them have been remade since then. A sorry state of affairs, indeed.