I know it’s a phrase we often say around here, but I’ll say it yet again: remaking Private Benjamin is a bad idea.
In a Hollywood Reporter exclusive on their Risky Business blog, Borys Kit and Jay A. Fernandez reported yesterday that comic actress Anna Faris (Observe and Report, The House Bunny) was being sought after to star in New Line Cinema’s remake of Private Benjamin with Amy Talkington (The Night of the White Pants) “in discussions” to write the screenplay for proposed producer Mark Gordon (“Army Wives,” Saving Private Ryan).
The original Benjamin from 1980 earned Goldie Hawn an Academy Award nomination as Judy Benjamin, a spoiled brat who joins the Army on a lark after her rich husband dies in bed on their wedding night. The new Benjamin is still being drafted as a comedy, but a certain paragraph from the article is giving me reasons to pause:
The new take will set the story in contemporary times with modern wars as the backdrop. Insiders say the studio doesn’t want to poke fun at the men and women in the service or take political potshots, but rather focus on the empowerment elements and build on the fish-out-of-water comedy.
I honestly don’t think you can make a comedy out of what’s going on or has gone on during our modern wars because there is too much gray area between who the white knights are and who the black hats are. I think the most recent screwball military comedy I can think of is Down Periscope from 1996 and while it only gets a 13% on the Tomatometer, it is one of the few original comedies from that era I liked because it looks inwards for the conflict rather than outwards.
arkonbey says:
This is just another in a long list of bad Hollywood remake ideas. I mean look at the previous post. The reasons you gave are quite valid, but the overall flood of unoriginality is too much to bother sitting down and writing my feelings.
Oh, wait, I just did.
(and the last screwball military comedy was the abysmal Delta Farce)
Gordon McAlpin says:
I love Anna Faris. I think she's a very gifted comedic actress.
Why the fuck can't Hollywood use her better than… THIS.
MO-- says:
There's and there always was “too much gray area” in every war. I mean, even in WWII, although certainly the Third Reich was an evil regime, doesn't mean the other parties didn't do anything wrong.
So yeah, war comedies are always a tricky thing, but I don't think that modern wars are inherently impossible to make fun of.
However, why anyone would want a remake of that particular movie …