Disney to Remake Escape to Witch Mountain
Good News, Bad News.
Good News: Walt Disney Pictures is remaking Escape to Witch Mountain.
Bad News: They are letting the guy who made She’s the Man and The Game Plan (which almost seems to us like Mr. Nanny with The Rock instead of Hulk Hogan) and a 2003 direct to video movie titled Who’s Your Dady? direct it. On the other hand, Andy Fickman did made Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, a nice little musical comedy which I caught at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and was shortly after dumped on Showtime (Kristen Bell and Neve Campbell star). So Fickman is capable of making a good film. But what are the chances that Matt Lopez (The Wild) has provided good source material.
The original Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) was based on the sci-fi novel by Alexander Key. The movie followed two mysterious orphan children who have extraordinary powers and are chased by a scheming millionaire with plans to exploit them. The film spawned one sequel (Return from Witch Mountain in 1978), one spin-off tv movie (Beyond Witch Mountain in 1982) and was remade for tv in 1995.
I vaguely remember loving the film during my early childhood, but IMDB’s 6.0 rating makes me wonder. I have been disappointed so many times by movies I once loved as a kid, after re-watching them as an adult. I’m sure many people of this next generation may suffer the same experience with She’s The Man. How sad.
The Game Plan Movie Trailer
I must admit, I’m a fan of The Rock. I think he could be the next big action star, if he got the right roles. And the fact that his new film, Disney’s The Game Plan was shot in my hometown (and at the New England Patriots’ Gillette Stadium), with a few of my close friends on screen, it should be hard for me to not like this film. I mean, for months I’ve actually been excited to see it. Disney has made a couple good sports films, and a bunch of bad ones. Unfortunately, The Game Plan looks like it could be one of the aforementioned clunkers. The Rock has a huge sense of comic timing, and that if not anything else, is very evident in this trailer. Check out the new trailer after the jump and decide for yourself. Could this be to The Rock what Mr. Nanny was to Hulk Hogan?
The movie follows an NFL quarterback living the bachelor lifestyle who discovers that he has a 7-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. The film also stars Kyra Sedgwick. Yes, this is the movie where The Rock sustained a ruptured Achilles tendon injury which forced the studio to postpone production for a few months. Although no official release date has been announced, we expect this one to hit theaters sometime during the 2007 football season.