Hey folks, Harry here. You know, personally I hope this doesn't happen. I love Tobe and a great deal of his films to death, but I would rather see him move forward rather than trying to cannibalize the past. The problem is this. If he did it, he could never film it nearly as shocking, due mainly to the MPAA's regulations today. Two, casting modern day teenagers, unless all unknowns, would just be dull as could be. And that first film is so well known, that unless he radically reconceptualized it... the audience would always be several steps ahead. Note the failure of Tom Savini's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD remake at the box office. Now I like Savini's remake, though due to the studio and the problem of the audience being ahead of the film...
Last year, at an all night Horror Thon that I attended with Tobe, he commented upon the differences in the audience between now and when TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and the classic seventies and early eighties horror films came out. In that day we had images of Vietnam, Charles Mansion, and the 'name' serial killer on the nightly news constantly. Now, the audience doesn't fear that they'll be killed by a stalker anymore, they're afraid of Drive-bys and unemployment and AIDS.
By his own statements, he seems to be stating that we no longer fear the Cannibal... But have become amused by him, as can be witnessed by the reaction to HANNIBAL.
What will Tobe do next? We'll see... And can he make TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE viable again? Time will tell....
Hey Harry,
I recently was at a dinner engagement for Edgeworks, a local non-profit organization promoting indapendent film in Corpus Christi Texas. The guest of honor was none other than Kim Henkel, who is a close personal freind to Tobe Hooper and co-writer of the original Texas Chainsaw Masacre and the writer/Director for Texas Chainsaw the next generation. After a screening of the original TX Chainsaw Kim stepped up on stage to do a Q&A for all us young filmakers, and the question came up for what his and Mr. Hoopers latest plans are. Kim told us that him and Tobe Hooper are involved in negotiations to do a remake of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and they are looking into possibly shooting it with the new Sony HD F900, the same cameras they are using for Star Wars Ep2 & 3! But of course nothing is solid yet, he said they dont even have a script yet, however it is an interesting idea.
Guru Master.
