You childhood will eat itself: The Return.

By Alison Willmore on 05/09/2006

Continued from last year, in which we spent far too much time fantasy casting a "Thundercats" adaptation (we're still drumming our nails over that inevitable announcement).

In the Hollywood Reporter today, word that the Weinstein Co. is going forward with a "Knight Rider" motion picture (to begin production next year), with the following quote from show creator Glen A. Larson:

The project had previously been in development at Revolution Studios. Larson has bandied about the project for years. "A number of people wanted to do a pure comedic send-up of it, but I always felt that would throw away the franchise," he said. "There was always some humor on the show, but this film will probably have more gallows, foxhole humor."

At the LA Times' summer movie section, Michael Mann talks "Miami Vice" with Robert W. Welkos, and expresses similar intentions with his 80s adaptation:

Mann's latest film is based on the "MTV-style" cops series "Miami Vice" that he executive produced in the 1980s. But he stresses that his new film won't be a rehash of the Crockett-and-Tubbs buddy series that captivated TV viewers two decades ago. Don't expect pastel cityscapes and undercover cops dressed in Armani jackets over T-shirts. "We wanted to do 'Miami Vice' as if it never existed before, do it for real," he says.

"The way Michael Mann wanted to do it, he made it heavier, darker," [star Jamie] Foxx says. "You don't really pay attention to the clothes. Actually, a lot of the movie was shot at night."

So, given our currently sociopolitical climate, one would think we're about primed for an unironic, superviolent summer flick about a team of war-vet mercenaries who travel around slaying bad guys on behalf of those in need (unappreciated and misunderstood by their own government, though ultimately they're most patriotic of them all). And yet...the "A-Team" movie sits stagnant. Tell us it wouldn't be perfect — it could put that part in "The Patriot" where Mel Gibson gores the evil English colonel's horse with the American flag to shame.

(On that note, novelist Andrew Klavan has a supremely disturbing editorial in the LA Times calling for more of the "America, Fuck Yeah"-type films of the mid-1940s:

We need some films celebrating the war against Islamo-fascism in Afghanistan and Iraq — and in Iran as well, if and when that becomes necessary. We need films like those that were made during World War II, films such as 1943's "Sahara" and "Action in the North Atlantic," or "The Fighting Seabees" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," which were released in 1944.

Not all of these were great films, or even good ones, but their patriotic tributes to our fighting forces inspired the nation.

More than that, they reminded the country what exactly it was that those forces were fighting to defend. Though many of these pictures now seem almost hilariously free with racist tirades against "sauerkrauts," and "eyeties" and "Tojo and his bug-eyed monkeys," they were also carefully constructed to display American life at its open-minded and inclusive best.

We made it halfway through before we figured out he wasn't kidding in his call for propaganda and had to start over again.)

Film Force points out more announcement on the cast of the "Transformers" film (Jon Voight? John Turturro?!). Cinematical's Mark Beall, talking to Brian Henson, gets updates on the "Fraggle Rock" movie, the "Dark Crystal" sequel, and discussions of a follow-up to "Labyrinth."

And at Wired, Rob Levine talks to 80s cult figure-turned-melancholy soundtrack maestro Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo:

Much of Mothersbaugh's most inventive work appears in the movies of Wes Anderson. The director is obsessed with music, and the two often spend hours together listening to stylistic models before Mothersbaugh composes a note. For "Rushmore," it was the baroque strains of Vivaldi; for "The Royal Tenenbaums," French impressionists like Debussy. These days, they're listening to Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in preparation for Anderson's next production, an adaptation of Roald Dahl's "Fantastic Mr. Fox." "It's a dark story," Mothersbaugh says. "There's a lot of flesh eating involved."

+ Weinstein Co. gears up for 'Knight Rider' (Hollywood Reporter)
+ Time for a new 'Vice' (LA Times)
+ Draft Hollywood (LA Times)
+ Transformers Cast Confirmed (Film Force)
+ Brian Henson Talks Dark Crystal 2, Fraggle Rock, and Labyrinth 2?! (Cinematical)
+ Devo Is Dead. Long Live Devo. (Wired)