The Anti-hero of mass media...

[fajrdrako]

lilithlotr caught my attention with this quote from Julian Runcan:

These classical roles are also a great rubric for judging actors against each other. Watching Laurence Olivier, Ian McKellen, Kenneth Branagh, Ethan Hawke and Mel Gibson each play Hamlet is the equivalent of watching Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Ben Wallace at the free throw line: when all is said and done, it's obvious who can shoot and who's just tall.

The article Pop-Aholic: Remakes: The anti-hero of mass media doesn't say anything new, but says it well, and I agree with his comments: I'm heartily in favour of movie adaptations of good books and remakes of good movies and reworkings of old TV shows. Sure, a lot of the remakes are terrible, but a lot of new stuff out there is terrible too - and no one says anyone has to watch the remakes if they don't like the idea.

What makes the exercise worthwhile is thinks like Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and the new Battlestar Galactica and the Ioan Gruffudd Horatio Hornblower and the Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare movies. Good or bad, it's an exercise in creativity. Where would be be if no one ever rewrote (or messed with) Homer?

Or if Russell T Davies hadn't been given his shot at Doctor Who?