A Remake of Christopher Nolan's MEMENTO is Coming Soon
Remake culture's latest victim is Christopher Nolan's Memento, the 2000 mystery thriller that starred Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss. THR reports that AMBI Pictures has acquired the rights to the library of Exclusive Media Group (which includes 400 films including Sliding Doors, Rush, Cruel Intentions, and Donnie Darko, to name a few) and given the greenlight to a remake of Nolan's twisty brain-bender. Monika Bacardi, one of AMBI's executives, released the following statement:
“Memento is a masterpiece that leaves audiences guessing not just throughout the film, but long after as well, which is a testament to its daring approach. We intend to stay true to Christopher Nolan’s vision and deliver a memorable movie that is every bit as edgy, iconic and award-worthy as the original. It’s a big responsibility to deliver something that lives up to the mastery of the original, but we are extremely excited and motivated to bring this puzzle back to life and back into the minds of moviegoers.”
Like any sane person, I'm not against the idea of remakes. There are dozens of excellent, iconic remakes that transcended the original film and became legendary in their own right. I can understand people complaining about Hollywood being out of ideas, but it boils down to this: right now, Hollywood is still very reliant on name recognition in the hopes of minimizing risk, and as long as people continue to pay to see remakes, the studios will continue to make them.
If you think Memento is a classic and doesn't deserve the remake treatment, your choice is simple: don't pay to see the remake. Ever. That's the only way Hollywood will get the message. It depends on who they hire to write, direct, and star in it, but as of right now, I'm not interested in seeing this story retold since I think Nolan did it perfectly the first time around. If an interesting group of talent is suddenly attached and it seems like they're going to put their own spin on it that I'll enjoy, I'm not going to avoid it just for the principle.
What do you think?