One film that clearly doesn’t need a remake in my opinion is The Crow. The original is simply timeless in its execution and I feel remaking it will undermine that brilliance. However, sometimes you just can’t stop Hollywood from making a buck (or millions as the case may be).

io9 spoke with producer Ryan Kavanaugh about the upcoming remake film, which according to him is “definitely going to happen.”  Such a definitive statement makes me cringe a little. That said, I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve seen the film.

While no actors have been attached to the project as of ye,t Kavanaugh did state:

“We’re looking. We’re in discussions….I think it’s something cool, we’re approaching it differently. It’s really a whole relaunch of the franchise, much more of a dark superhero type.”

In addition, there was one comment Kavanaugh made that didn’t make much sense to me. That is his poignant statement, “It’s not a remake it’s literally a relaunch of the franchise.”  Is anyone else getting a little tired of Hollywood executives trying to avoid the dreaded “r” word?  Reboot.  Remake.  Relaunch.  Sorry guys, it’s all the same thing no matter how you try and spin it.

That aside, The Crow story in of itself is a good one. I hope this new film will do the original justice. My only concern is that there were a lot of sequels after the first movie and a TV show, all of which flopped. Here’s hoping the new Crow will return in much better form.

Did you know that there was a sequel in the works for 2006’s Smokin’ Aces, with practically none of the original cast? Neither did we, until this trailer came across The Flickcast desk. It would be an interesting take, if it had any of the same people involved as the original film.

While the film doesn’t look like it will do much justice to Joe Carnahan’s original, the trailer was quite clever. It starts off by making sure we see some of our favorite faces from the original, such as Jeremy Piven, and then it throws a record scratch in to tell us that we won’t see them anymore.

Instead of a well-rounded cast consisting of Piven, Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Keys, and tons others, we now treated to the all-star cast of Vinnie Jones, Ernie Hudson, Tom Berenger, and the guy who had no lines in the first Smokin’ Aces.

Director P.J. Pesce seems perfect for the job, as his previous titles include other DVD sequels like Lost Boys: The Tribe, and From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter. Joe Carnahan is listed as writing the story for the film, but so is his assistant, so there’s no real secret there.

Check out the first full trailer after the jump, and be sure to pick it up on DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download, and the bargain bin shortly thereafter on January 19th, 2010.

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In a recent interview with the LA Times, the legend of Blues, comedy and ‘busting ghosts’, Dan Aykroyd, updated the fans on the developments of a third Ghostbusters film, which has been on hold for quite some time, mostly due to Bill Murray’s prior reluctance to return to the franchise.

“I don’t put not making the third movie on Billy,” said Aykroyd in the interview. “We can’t do that. I’ve been very busy. Harold’s been busy, Ivan’s been busy. And a third script really didn’t coalesce properly. And Billy, you can’t blame an artist for not wanting to do the same thing again. He did two of them, for God’s sake.”

Aykroyd went on to defend Murray further and elaborate a bit more on when he feels the film may come together and start production. According to the actor:  ”Although I’m the biggest cheerleader as the originator of the concept but I’ve never begrudged Billy not doing a third movie. I never said he held it up or that he refused. I’m sorry he never read my third draft because I thought it was pretty good but, look, now we’re at a point that there’s a story that he can accept and that’s going to work, and I think we’re going to be in production fairly soon. We could be in production by winter.”

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