This has been a good week for remakes (or a bad week, depending on how you feel about them), but while announced redos of our beloved mystery comedies, sci-fi actioners and neverending fantasy flicks are shocking enough, there’s not a blogger in the world who saw a new “contemporized” version of Damn Yankees coming. Let alone one starring Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal as Mr. Applegate (aka Satan) and soul-selling baseballer Joe Hardy, respectively.
Yet Hugh Jackman and the rest of the all-singing-all-dancing stars of Sunday’s Oscars telecast did tell us that the musical is back, so maybe we should be making bets on what classic songfest gets reworked next (I’m putting money on West Side Story). This isn’t even the first musical remake we’ll be seeing in the next few years. New films of My Fair Lady, Carousel, Bye Bye Birdie and Jesus Christ Superstar are apparently already on their way to theaters. Anyhoo, let’s see how the ol’ blogosphere reacted to the Damn Yankees news today:
- Alex Billington at FirstShowing.net appears to be the most eager musical-loving blogger out there:
This just sounds amazing. It’s already got a stellar cast and I’m sure they’ll find a great director for it in the end. I’m already getting excited thinking about how awesome it will be seeing Jim Carrey play the devil in a musical comedy about baseball. Does it really get any better than that?
- Meanwhile, Jessica Barnes at Cinematical, who admits to a weird relationship with musicals, has doubts: “One classic musical I have always loved is Damn Yankees, so the announcement of an updated version has me a little nervous — throw in two untried singers and dancers and we just might be reaching panic.”
- And Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere totally disagrees with the idea, because the tunes from Damn Yankees are “timepieces that have no connection to Obama America.” Here’s more from Wells:
There’s absolutely no way to contemporize Damn Yankees. It’s a very old-fashioned, 55 year-old musical that seethes with the mood and attitudes of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s America — a way of living and thinking and dreaming that is long gone, up in smoke and dead, dead, deader-than-dead.
- The Playlist is also not much looking forward to the film but was at least inspired to make one of the site’s greatest photoshop illustrations yet.
- Mark of I Watch Stuff somewhat looks forward to seeing the remake with his grandma, but is mostly tongue-in-cheek:
Can we get some kind of assurance that Carrey will wear Grinch-like prosthetics for his part? I feel like that’s still needed to fully push this past the realm of good sense. Either that or the announcement that actual Yankee A-Rod will co-star as part of a rehabilitation agreement.
- No actress has yet been cast in the film’s other leading role, but Richard at Gawker has an idea: “There’s been nothing announced about the musical’s most important part, the sexy vamp Lola (she gets what she wants) that the Devil uses to tempt Joe. May we suggest not Anne Hathaway.”
- PopWatch’s Margaret Lyons has some real suggestions (and also says no Hathaway): “You guys, duh: Cast Scarlett Johansson. She’s far and away my first pick, but I could get on board for Beyonce, too…Evan Rachel Wood definitely rocks a smoky sexuality, but she strikes me as a little too young for the role.”
- Meanwhile commenters to Lyons’ post pick Catherine Zeta-Jones, Katy Perry, Jane Krakowski, Vanessa Hudgens, Christina Applegate, Amy Adams, Kristen Chenoweth, Audra McDonald, Heidi Montag, Christina Hendrick and Nicole Kidman.
- Elizabeth Snead at The Dish Rag (LA Times) adds to the list: Reese Witherspoon (also suggested by E!’s Marc Malkin), Charlize Theron and Jenny McCarthy but not Renee Zellweger.
- Helen O’Hara at Empire believes Gyllenhaal got the part thanks to a certain SNL performance. But then wouldn’t he have been cast as Lola? You can watch the performance below:
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