For anyone who’s ever railed against Hollywood for remaking great movies which can’t possibly be improved, there’s this: Mannequin is getting a remake. Before you throw up in your mouth let me state my case, because this is exactly the sort of movie that really should be remade.
First the story comes from Moviehole where they say Gladden Entertainment is in early development on a redo of the 1987 Andrew McCarthy movie in which a man falls in love with a mannequin which looks like Kim Cattrall and then magically comes to life. What was it with that McCarthy dude and inanimate objects anyway? First he dated a plastic woman, then he went on vacation with a corpse in Weekend at Bernie’s. Something was up there. Can’t be a coincidence.
So even though it spawned a sequel I think we can all agree that Mannequin was a pretty horrible movie. At the time maybe it had a certain kind of silly charm but now it’s generally terrible. Alright, part of the problem was the concept, which is flatly ridiculous, but there has to be a way to do it better. And here’s where I make a case for this being a good idea. Every Mannequin that gets remade is one less Hollywood backlot available to remake Harvey or Rear Window or some other perfect classic which should never, ever be touched by Steven Spielberg’s grubby little fingers. Plus, there’s every reason to think they could make this movie better given another shot at it. There’s plenty of room for improvement here. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and if it is, grab a teamster and get crackin.
