Believe it or not, I'm passing on this.

Can't anyone use their fucking imaginations anymore?

@ManchuCandidate: Hollywood is officially out of original ideas.

@ManchuCandidate: Nice to see a fellow Wonketteer over here. Anyway, I was a huge geek for this show when it originally aired. No accounting for the taste of a 15 year old sci-fi nerd.

@NefariousNewt:
You know what really sucks? Today, a movie like Star Wars wouldn't get made. No one liked the project. It wasn't the in thing in the production suite and it cost too much. A scriptwriter friend of mine says that's because execs are rewarded for putting their thumbs up their asses (one exec he dealt with had not greenlit a movie for 15 years.)

We need a Roger Corman like production company who is willing to make movies (even really crappy ones) and take chances.

Until the SFX addicted public figures it out, well, I'll be at home writing angry screeds in the basement.

@danofromraleigh:
No accounting for taste as a teenager period. Yes, it is nice to see we slum in similar places in the Gawker neighborhood.

No Robert Culp = No good movie.
The lead role could probably be successfully recast without too much trouble, but without Culp...I dunno...they had better do some brilliant casting.

This is the movie Will Ferrell ought to be in, not the Land of the Lost remake.

If you watched the DVDs then you know he always had a love interest. Sigh.

Stop the hating, Charlie Anders.
This show was huge for me when it originally aired, and, I recently watched some eps of it and, yes, it is campy and sexist and predictable, but also adorably charming.

And, although an introduction of "evil aliens" [what the hell is that, anyways? Why are all motives so fantastically pidgeonholed into fitting with our cultures perception of morality?] will be a somewhat welcome change from "communists", I think it will reduce the story to another "Transformers"-movie.

Two regular guys both get superpowers and then fight it out.
I for one hope that the "good guy" wins!
Bleh.

I admit, a high school science teacher chosen by evil aliens to receive superpowers and help them trip mine the planet is a kind of a funny idea.

The original was more character-driven than plot-driven--if you focused on the stories solely, no small wonder you were unimpressed. The dialogue was well-written and the interplay between Culp, Katt, and Selleca was priceless, particularly Culp's Milk Bone-chompin' Bill Maxwell. Even without that, I still would have watched just for an easy-on-the-eyes Connie Selleca. Then again, I'm the same guy who sat through innumberable crappy eps of Buck Rogers in order to watch Erin Gray moving around in those shiny Lycra jumpsuits.

The original actor from Greatest American Hero was in last year's "The Man from Earth"

It's a decent low-budget scifi movie... all dialogue, no special effects.

[imdb.com]

@braak: Yes, but it was a bad TV show and it won't make for a good movie. Unless they get Will Ferrell.

@ManchuCandidate: Well, I suspect Star Wars would get made, but it would be out of all proportion to the story, a CGI fantasy-land that would be even more wooden the Episodes 1 & 2.

The fact is that the studios what sure things and they have the mind set that things that look like other things that were successful will be successful themselves. They've totally abandoned the ideas of originality and plot development. Movies are more for the eyes now than the brain or heart.

the tv series wasn't supposed to be amazing - it was supposed to be funny and absurd - a commentary on heroes at that time in our history - that's the joke: "The Greatest American Hero" is some yeoman johnson who was given a super suit and lost the instructions - sounds like a better premise than some cgi created green midget speaking backwards - star wars virgins, get over yourselves - there is other sci-fi out there... that's the point of this website

This does have Will Ferrell written all over it. You guys have any other ideas for who would make a good one?

@NefariousNewt: No argument there.

Maybe instead they should remake Puma-Man, the slacks-wearing superhero!

I hope to all that is holy they don't put Will Ferrel in it. This is a move that's made for Jon "Napoleon Dynamite" Heder.

@Biggrz: What about Seth Rogan?

Worst TV superhero ever?

I would say, among the best. The only TV superhero show that I can think of that's comparable is the first season of Wonder Woman, when it was WW 2. Maybe Misfits of Science, but it's definitely not quite as good as the other two.

What do you guys think was a *good* superhero TV show?
-Kle.

@Ravac: Absofinlutely. This is one that doesn't hold up to my childhood memories, so feel free - screw it up, spoof it up, go crazy, make something camptastic out of it! It might even be funny.

But don't mess with my Land of the Lost!

"chosen by evil aliens to help them strip-mine the planet"

And that's where they lost me. There are no natural resources on Earth that wouldn't be easier to get in space. Water? Europa. Iron? Asteroid Belt or Mars. Uranium? Just about anywhere.

This is not going to be pretty.

From the director of Mighty Ducks, huh? Whoooooboy.

@jabrwok: Humans?

Mmmm, humans. It's what's for dinner.

@jabrwok: Yeah. That's the really implausible part of the movie.

@qmech: "It's a cookbook!"

I'm walking on air! I never thought I could feel so free-e-e.

Dear lord ... someone call them up and tell them I was just kidding when I suggested it.

Nobody wants this.

@Klebert: Automan!

But... but... I think you are missing the point here. He lost the instruction book!!! That's comedy gold. I lived this show when I was 9. Please stop raping my childhood, i09!!!

Biggrz: You're right that it has Will Ferrell written all over it. Look at the trailer for Semi-Pro, he's already got the haircut.

The bigger question is which ultra-marketable teen-friendly 'artist' is going to re-make the title song for the soundtrack album? Fall Out Boy? Daughtry? Maybe a Jack Johnson-John Mayer duet?

Whoooooo could it beeeeeeee?

@Biggrz: I almost said in my post that I bet Kevin Spacey is available. What's he doing these days anyway?

Any line as to whether Christopher Cross's theme song will be used. Maybe he could come out of hiding to re-record the song plus a new one.

I'd rather watch washed up William Katt do another infomercial for a psychic phone service.

I'm not on top of everything, has there ever been plans on doing movie based on The Green Lantern? I alway felt like the show was a watered down version of that.

I'll admit to liking the TV show - it was silly and the idea that you had access to all sorts of super powers if you could just find the instructions is kind of funny. Sure, he wasn't much of a super-hero, but that was the point. Seeing him try to change in a phone booth was pretty funny. Was it excellent? No, or it would probably have lasted a little longer.

As for the movie - evil aliens wanting to strip mine the planet? What's up with that? I enjoyed seeing him trying to be a super hero in just (somewhat) ordinary situations. This idea pretty much ruins the movie.

As for Wil Ferrel - maybe, but I can _so_ do without potty humor and I see way too much of that from a typical Wil Ferrel movie. Perhaps if they can step outside of that mold the way a couple of Jim Carrey's movies did....

I really like the idea of a Green Lantern movie, but I just can't stand the idea that Hollywood would mess that up as badly as the Superman movies if not worse. I think there was a plan briefly, but then you have to deal with _which_ GL to choose, what era of the DC Universe, which villain, etc. GL was always one of my favorite comics. As such, I don't know if it deserves what Hollywood would do to it. :-)

I loved GAH too in my youth (William Katt was so cute!), but as Spooky-Mark points out it was about the characters, not the action. I have to disagree that Will Farrell would be a good choice. It's not that he's not funny, 'cause he plays bumbling hilariously, but that at this point is he's such a big star that the movie would be about him. Also, he's not at all cute. My vote is for Owen Wilson.

The villain is also a high school teacher? Bad idea.

@PeggyK: Owen Wilson is not a bad idea, indeed.

The show was a character-driven sitcom and really, it was all about Robert Culp.

"Palmdale?"

Cool TV series but I'm not sure that it will translate to the big screen. It does have me wondering what twists they could work in though. Maybe play it dead-pan, with Samuel L Jackson in the lead role.

Dear Charlie, your opinion is empirically wrong.

I will prove it with these charts and graphs.

Or maybe I'll just whine. Greatest American Hero was great when it focused on an ordinary guy trying to deal with extraordinary power. The bumbling comedy elements were balanced by moments when Ralph came through and saved the day.

GAH was great when it showed a guy having normal human reactions to extraordinary situations.

I also remember Ralph meeting another guy who had a suit and was corrupted by it -- pretty heavy morality for 1985.

Of course they bogged down in the Cold War stuff, but if they played up the regular guy contrast, the movie could rock.

If they play it as pure comedy it will suck.

Joey Scarbury did the theme. He'd been doing covers for Stephen J. Cannell's other productions and simply stepped in with "original" material on this show. I remember more than one montage that required his services.

I loved the show, but lost track of it when it got pre-empted too many times to bother with. Never saw the ending.

Hmmmmmmm....i can hardly wait to miss this movie.
Gee just what we need, yet ANOTHER remake fo a 1980s tv show(Anyone remember THE DUKES OF HAZARD??).
THis deserves to be buried...forever.

You know, I don't mind Hollywood recycling good stuff, but this? Yeah, you know things are bad when...

If this movie is made with Will Farrell it will definitely have an evil alien. Will Farrell is the latest in a series of evil aliens that have invaded Hollywood and use their powers of mind control to make people think they're funny. Bob Hope was an evil mind control alien, so was Jerry Seinfeld. Now that one has returned to the home planet and the other's powers have attenuated their masters have sent Will Farrell to subvert and dull humanity's sense of humor. Be warned mankind; without our sense of humor we will be defenseless during their final onslaught.

I think the potential is there to make a good movie. I mean, you're taking a premise designed to be beaten to death for the length of at least one season and condensing it down to a 90 movie. Whether or not that'll be enough time to set up the character-driven elements (which definitely was the heart of the show) AND the premise (meeting the aliens, finding the suit, losing the directions, trying out the suit's powers etc.) AND the evil guy AND two sets of aliens AND a love interest AND a battle royale remains to be seen.

I liked the idea that the suit was given to save humanity from ourselves - Ralph was shown the alien's barren wasteland of a homeworld as a warning to inspire him to work harder (surely a topic even more pertinent today) but then he lost the instructions A SECOND TIME.

Even at twelve years old and starved for sci-fi, that was so stupid I couldn't watch anymore after that.

I do wonder where the remakes will end, and when they will begin again. It's hard to imagine someone remaking the Matrix or the Lord of the Rings; do they just concentrate on buying the rights to properties that kinda sucked (Land of the Lost) because the better properties have already been optioned (Forbidden Planet)?

Most executives aren't too bright either and they sure don't have long memories. I read the other day that Woolworth had to pull a bedroom set for six year old girls they'd christened the "Lolita Midsleeper Combi." Spokesperson said that no one (in the boardroom or marketing department or engineering department or art department, apparently) had heard of Nabokov.

It's sad that these are the same people on whom we have to rely to greenlight science fiction movies. (If I ever get my hands on the SOB who cancelled Firefly...)

On the bright side, James Cameron has stopped dicking around on the Titanic long enough to make a new movie, you know. So there's that.

Will Ferrell?? Are you crazy? That's why so many of these tv-movie remakes are so weak. Comedy is contrast. Something or someone in a comedy has to be the "straight man". So many remakes just throw ten tonnes of silly-ass stuff in all directions and hope there's a chuckle.

In "Greatest American Hero", the characters were generally in earnest. They bantered and kibitzed back and forth, but they were sincerely trying to fight crime and/or evil. The laughs came from Ralph's bumbling superpower misfires.

If a Will Ferrell is the superhero, then he'll be silly and over the top, as he always is. The superpowers will be silly and stupid. The plot will be silly and stupid. And, in the end, people will leave saying "That was silly and stupid."