Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Hold onto your hats Satoshi Kon fans... Wolfgang Petersen wants to remake "Paprika"?

by Chris MaGee

Satoshi Kon has one of the most singular visions not only in Japanese animation, but in contemporary animation regardless of where in the world it originates. While Mamoru Oshii established his career by exploring the nature of reality through technology with his landmark "Ghost in the Shell" film, Kon almost immediately made his mark with his 1997 feature film "Perfect Blue" by focusing on the psychology of reality, how what we see, hear and believe to be real can often be maddeningly subjective. Kon has gone on to twist, turn and tear reality with his follow up projects "Millennium Actress" and the animated series "Paranoia Agent". Of course we can't forget his last international success "Paprika" the story of a doctor who explores the landscape of dreams using her nocturnal double named Paprika.

It's this singular vision that has had me very worried for a while now. Hollywood can sniff out an original idea in secionds and then kill it with one sloppy remake, and it looks like that may very well happen with Satoshi Kon and "Paprika". Apparently "Das Boot" and "Neverending Story" director Wolfgang Petersen is considering remaking "Paprika". It doesn't seem, at least at this point, to be much beyond the very early development stages, and it isn't clear if Petersen will be using Kon's film as a starting point or Yasutaka Tsutsui's 1993 novel on which Kon based his film. It's probably six of one/ a half-dozen of another really, but I just have a fear that if this goes ahead that we'll just get something that looks like a rehash of Tarsim Singh's 2000 horror film "The Cell". Remember that one? With Jennifer Lopez? I rest my case.

Thanks to Japanator for the heads up on this.

4 comments:

Lookf4r said...

note: its Wolfgang Petersen

Robert-Philippe Masse said...

Well, its just, NOT possible to remake.

Chris MaGee said...

Shouldn't write stories when half asleep. Thanks, Lookf4r.

Cathy Munroe Hotes said...

Considering how long it takes Wolfgang Peterson to complete a film, I doubt that we'll see anything on the screen for at least a couple of years.