For a time in the 1960s in England, before Monty Python launched their Flying Circus on the BBC, the heights of British comedy was the cinematic series Carry On. Filled to the rim with, for the time, saucy jokes, double entendres and just plain silliness, the series of bedroom farces ran for 30 installments between 1958 and 1978, packing British cinemas and launching a host of immitators.
Now London’s Evening Standard is reporting that there may be an attempt afoot to bring the series back to cinemas-
Industry gossip suggests that there is talk of reviving the Carry On franchise, this time with Russell Brand in the lead in a film called Carry On To The Next Round. The plot involves an X Factor-type show in which the judges bicker and fight with each other and one falls for a contestant.
An attempt to relaunch the series in 1992 with Carry On Columbus looked pretty good on paper. It mixed a few of the remaining Carry On series regulars with a number of British comedy up and comers who were emerging out the 1980s comedy New Wave movement. Unfortunately, the film turned out to be a rather unfunny muddle.
Can a new Carry On series be successfully launched. Much of what made the original series popular to audiences in the 60s and 70s would probably seem tame and old fashioned to 21st century theater goers used to the films of the Farrelly Brothers, Adam Sandler or Judd Apatow. But if a new Carry On film were to try and compete with these other films in their own arena, how alienated would fans of the series feel?
Via Cinema Retro.
