The Neverending Story "remake" in the works

[Bastian]

The book is beyond amazing.

The first 1984 film was pretty darn good.

The 1989 sequel was . . . alright. For nostalgia purposes.

The third movie was godawful.

The cartoon series was cute, but ultimately too kiddy.

The live action tv series was beyond terrible.

But still, I have some hope that this "remake" (it isn't actually a remake, but more of a new adaption of the book) will finally capture what the book was really about.

But every single one of the twelve million blogs about this all sound the same: they're all written by whinny guys telling Hollywood to suck it for "raping [their] childhood" with remakes.

They should learn to read.

[Miriel]

The Neverending Story was like my absolute favorite movie growing up. LOVED IT. Completely transported me to another world whenever I watched it. And I cried like a baby when (SPOILER)Atreyu's horse died.

But the sequel sucked. I never read the books so I can't really comment on the whole adaptation thing.

[Marshall Banana]

Falklor will be played by Tiki.

<img src="http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m285/fofonda/Old/tiki8.jpg">

[theundeadhero]

Maybe they won't remake the wolf so damn scary so it doesn't traumatize kids for the rest of their lives

[Ryth]

I have to jump on the "stop making remakes" wagon. I adored the first movie (never saw the sequels) and I really hope they don't ruin it. More importantly though, I don't even care if this would end up being great... I'm SICK of remakes. Hollywood is so dearth of originality that I become shocked if theres more than 5 SOLID films in any given year.

[Bastian]

Ryth: I understand where you're coming from . . . "but remakes" have been the trend in Hollywood since . . . well, at least since 1939. The version of The Wizard of Oz that we're all familiar with? Remake. Based on the 1921 silent version. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings? Remake. 1978 animated film directed by Ralph Bakshi.

But the point that I'm trying to make is that like these films, the new film(s) based on the book The Neverending Story are NOT remakes. A "remake" implies that it is the new production team's intent to recreate the original movie (like the new version of Psycho, which was shot-for-shot identical). Oz, Rings, and so on and now The Neverending Story are attempts to ignore those previous versions for the most part and create NEW adaptations from their original book.

That's why I'm so jazzed about this. As wonderful as the first NES movie was, it paled in comparison to the book. The book is exponentially better.

[Markus. D]

I want Tim Burton to remake it !

and it can be full of morbid musical bliss~~~

[Bastian]

You know, Tim Burton would be a good choice. The book is VERY dark (especially the second half that was never made into the film) and there are three songs in the book.

[scrumpleberry]

Falklor will be played by Tiki.

<img src="http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m285/fofonda/Old/tiki8.jpg">

I love your dogs. Mine don't have such beautiful wind faces.

Also, this had better be damn good.

[Bastian]

Oh! And cute as your dog is, there will be no flying dogs in the new version. Falkor was supposed to look like a white chinese dragon with a lion-like head, but the '84 film thought that the concept art for him looking like that would be too scary for kids and not cute enough. Hence the flying dog shape.

[BG-57]

I'm not opposed to remakes per se, but they rarely capture what made the previous versions great (if they were great). The 1939 Wizard of Oz set the bar so high that I doubt I'll live to see it topped.

Speaking of Tim Burton, I found his remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory visually more impressive than the 1970's version but the characterization of Willy Wonka was creepy and off putting in the wrong way. It would be interesting to see what he could do with the material, but I found his only completely successful live action film was Ed Wood.

I grew up on the original film (I lived in Germany at the time and had a backpack just like the bullies wear), and I have it now on DVD. Like Wizard of Oz, it holds up very well, aside from Gmork's presentation. They couldn't convincingly show him running so they just cut to POV shots instead. I'm sure digital effects could show a more expansive Fantasia, but the first movie did a great job with sets and animatronics.

All the special effects in the world will not save a remake if the casting is bad. And that's ultimately what really made the first NES movie great: both Bastian and Atreyu were protrayed by great child actors who had great screen presence and you could identify completely with their struggles.

That being said I hope any remake is successful...not that it matters.

[Darkswordofchaos]

I have to jump on the "stop making remakes" wagon. I adored the first movie (never saw the sequels) and I really hope they don't ruin it. More importantly though, I don't even care if this would end up being great... I'm SICK of remakes. Hollywood is so dearth of originality that I become shocked if theres more than 5 SOLID films in any given year.

For real thear was like 2 movies last year that were completle original.

But i really liked the never ending story id like to see a new one

[Dreddz]

This remake will be riddled with CG that will ruin the film. I've always been a fan of the special effects used in the original film. The scene where the horse dies always frightened me because it seemed so real.

I always found the original to be a sublime experience. Very weird but in a good way. The film doesn't need remaking, end of. At least its not as bad as The Karate Kid remake. Now thats criminal.

[Bastian]

Again, I must disagree.

The film DOES need remaking.

Imagine if when MGM decided to do The Wizard of Oz in 1939, people said "No! We already have the silent version from the 20s! We prefer movies to be silent, we don't need your fancy SOUND in our movies!" We'd never have the version that we all know today.

Imagine if when Peter Jackson tried to do Lord of the Rings everyone said, "No! Lord of the Rings doesn't need remaking. We already have the cartoon from the 70s. I prefer the cartoon special effects to anything you could come up with." Do you honestly think the cartoon Lord of the Rings is better? It's awful. They cut at least two thirds of the material out.

I LOVE the original version of The Neverending Story (for nostalgia reasons, mainly, it was my favorite movie as a kid and I watched it like once a week), but I have MAJOR issues with it.

1) More than two thirds of the story is missing. Imagine if they stopped at the end of Fellowship of the Ring and decided to not make Two Towers or Return of the King. And, NO, NeverEnding Story II and III have nothing to do with the missing two thirds.

2) Not only is the entire last half of the book missing, but a LOT of stuff from the first half of the book that would have been AMAZING to see isn't there. There's a huge scary creature called Ygramul that is comprised entirely of tiny insects and together can morph into various deadly shapes with deadly poison; they couldn't do such a thing in '84 because of the infancy of special effects.

3) Much of what should have been the end of the first film was cut out. It was probably too philosophical and dark .

4) Bastian is supposed to be fat. Yes, fat.

5) Atreyu is supposed to be green. I can let this one slide.

6) Falkor is NOT supposed to be a flying dog. He's a white Chinese dragon with a lion-like head and huge fangs. he's SUPPOSED to look scary. That's part of the whole point. Bastian is fat, but he's a hero. Falkor looks like a scary monster, but is a good guy.

7) The second movie planned (which I assume will be based on the second half of the book) will blow everyone's mind. If you thought the original first movie was dark and moody, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Imagine what happens when someone is given absolute power. Even the best intentions quickly pave the road to hell.

[theundeadhero]

I hope they hold true to Falkor's introduction in the story. Spoiler if you haven't read the bookImagine a giant scary dragon trapped in a spider web with another giant spider monster about to eat him. Atreyu has to travel very far and this spider monster knows a secret way to do so. The secret is that the poison in the spider's bite allows you to travel great distances through space. So, Atryu lets the spider bite him, poisoning himself, and travels the distance. Since the luck dragon just happened to be stuck around listening he found out he could travel too so he got the smurf out of there and followed Atreyu.