‘The
Fly’ Remakes, good or bad? Karl John Koo
The Fly was
originally a short story first published in Playboy Magazine in 1957.
Kurt Neumann, who
was a director and part time producer, realized the cinematic potential of The
Fly. Kurt then brought the property to Robert Lippert, whom he had previously
worked with and was now contracted as an associated producer to 20th
Century Fox.
Fox was not a
studio known for its Sci-Fi Films but had given Neumann and Lippert the green
light to make the project and had given them a budget of $500,000, a small
budget for the time when compared to the $15.2 million budget of M.G.M’S ‘Ben
Hur’ that would only be released eleven months after ‘The Fly’.
During the 1950’s
the general attitude towards Sci-Fi was not a kind one. The famous Science
Fiction writer Philip K. Dick described the main stream view of Sci-Fi at this
time as a “ghettoization”. However, Hollywood had suffered economic reverses in
the 1950’s due to the popularity of Television. This meant that smaller studios
and independent production company’s found it easier to raise finances for
small budget projects. Low budget films where aggressively marketed towards
teenagers and drive in movie theatres. And Independent Film makers had
identified teens as the primary audience for Science Fiction.
Vincent Price was
brought in to be the marquee actor of the film. Fox Studio reportedly had
doubts about Prices marque value for the film but the director insisted on
having Price in the film due to the fact that his fame could help draw a horror
audience to a film that was being marketed as Science fiction. The Technologies and production of the film
where modest and the production crew had their hands tied by the restraints of
the studio’s doubts about the film and commitments to the Hays Code.
20th
Century Fox had decided to market the film on a prevalent fear amongst the
American people at that time.
Nuclear War had entered
the public’s imagination. Godzilla arrived, awakened by a nuclear bomb and took
out his revenge on modern society and in 1954 Warner Brothers had had modest
success with the film ‘Them!’ Which told the story of giant-atomically
muted-man eating ants. Fox paid attention to this when they marketed The Fly
with the tagline “The first time atomic mutation on humans has been shown on
the screen!” and the film was met with relative success earning £4 million at
the box office, spawning two sequels (Return of the Fly and Curse of the Fly)
and helping establish further Vincent Prices reputation as a Marque star in
Horror and Science Fiction genre films.
In the twenty
eight years between the original ‘The Fly’ and its remake the world had gone
through many changes. In the 1960’s Science fiction had been taken out of the
ghetto and into the appraisal of highbrow literature critics due to the seminal
works by the ‘New Wave of Science Fiction’ authors who had decided to reinvent
the genre. These writers felt that science fiction was too concerned with
rocket ships and Martians and had decided to paint pictures of post-apocalyptic
dystopian futures whilst drawing on themes of sex, violence, reality and
humanity. Meanwhile, Cinema was becoming more artistic with the French Nouvelle
Vague movement started by such auteur film Directors as Jean Luc Godard. These
Films where breaking new ground in technique and style and the Fame and
creative control that the directors held became very influential in America and
had a strong effect on the changing of Hollywood’s landscape. Arthur Pens
‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and Sam Peckinpah’s ‘The Wild Bunch’ had helped relax the
studio’s attitude toward the Hays Code and Soon enough America had Auteur film
directors of their own, with the rising notoriety of film makers such as Dennis
Hopper and Martin Scorsese.
In the 1970’s
David Cronenberg had started out as an independent film maker, using the medium
to display his artistic ability to create repulsive, unsettling Visuals. David had come to critical Acclaim and had
had small success with his ‘Body Horror’ films ‘Creepers’, ‘Scanners’ and ‘The
Dead Zone’. During this time Star Wars Box office figures earned $775.4 million
from an $ 11 million budget and E.T had become the highest grossing film in
cinema history earning $792.9 million worldwide. The success of these two films
meant Hollywood producers were willing to put money in to Sci-fi films, hoping
to have the next big smash hit.
Mel Brooks’
production company had just come into success with the film “The Elephant Man”
which Brooks had left in the hands of surrealist Auteur director David Lynch.
The film had won eight Academy Award nominations and had made a $21 million
profit at the box office from a $5 million budget. Accordingly, when Mel Brooks
had bought the rights to ‘The Fly’, he quickly hired David Cronenberg to direct
the film hoping to gain similar success to that of ‘The Elephant man’. Cronenberg
was given a budget of $9 million to work on a more mature and sophisticated
reworking of The Fly.
In the 1980’s the
general public had become more privy to scientific fact, so when re writing the
script David Cronenberg, along with screen writer Charles Edward Pogue, decided
to have the story’s protagonist merge his genetic structure with that of a fly,
causing his body to slowly mutate. The mutation of the main character,
scientist Seth Brundle, played upon a new public fear in the 1980’s in a
similar fashion to the original films nod toward nuclear threat. The Aids virus had been Reported by Tabloid
newspapers as scare story’s, feeding the populous’ inability to understand how
the Aids virus actually spreads. Everyday people lived in fear of the
possibility that a homosexual plumber might infect their cistern. Cronnenerg’s
speciality for “Body Horror” almost seemed perfect for this story at that
particular time.
Chris Wallace had
designed the special affects for the film. The final part of Seth’s
transformation into a man/fly hybrid were designed first, then throughout the
filming of the movie seth’s make up was gradually progressed through seven
stages. When production had ended the
film was shown to a test audience, and due to the negative reaction from
particularly gruesome scenes, the film was cut accordingly before being given a
wide distribution.
Upon its release
the fly gained critical acclaim and had garnered $60.6 million at the box
office despite being a gory remake of a classic made by a controversial,
non-mainstream director. The remake had even won the Oscar for best make up
affects and gained a sequel in 1989.
In conclusion to
the question, remakes good or bad? The Fly is a perfect example of how a good
film can be improved on, given the circumstances and the people involved in the
production. Both of these films, like most science fiction, are a
representation of the times and are well and truly worthy of the success that
both films garnered when released.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s British and American crime story’s became popular in France, Germany and Italy. “Whodunit” story’s written by writers such as Edger Wallace and Ed McBain Where sold as cheap paperbacks. The success of these books, which were almost exclusively printed with a yellow cover, attracted the attention of bigger publishing houses, who began releasing the story’s, mimicking the style of the cover. Soon the word “Giallo” would become synonymous with mystery novels. Giallo being Italian for yellow. French “Fantastique” films had enjoyed success in the 1950’s and the British director Alfred Hitchcock had gained critical acclaim for his stylish suspense films. These trends had a sizable influence on what would become “the Giallo”. However, the biggest influence on the Giallo film was the German crime sub-genre “krimi”. Krimi films were hugely
successful German films of the early 1960’s that were exclusively based on
Edger Wallace stories. The films where typical whodunit story’s with a masked
killer filmed in black and white. The Typical Krimi movie has distinct
stylistic traits such as dolly shots, pans, a unique editing style and slight
over acting.
