Twentieth Century Fox subsidiary Fox 2000 is looking to remake the cult classic musical The Rocky horror Picture Show and they think that Ryan Murphy, creator of the hit musical high school dramedy series Glee, is just the man to helm the project.
Deadline is reporting that Fox 2000 is actively talking with Murphy about the project, though Murphy has not committed. In addition to overseeing Glee, Murphy is lined up to direct the AIDS-drama The Normal Heart and is looking for another project that would reunite him with his Eat, Pray, Love star Julia Roberts. Lou Adler, the producer who brought the original stage musical to the big screen, is already attached.
Obviously, there’s no word on casting at such an early juncture, but I’m sure that will not stop certain hit-hungry gossip sites from running baseless speculative articles trying to match Glee cast members to Rocky Horror roles.
This is not the first time that a remake of the Rocky Horror Picture Show has been attempted. First the FOX network and then MTV took stabs at developing made-for-TV remakes. Rocky Horror co-creator Richard O’Brien wasn’t involved in either project and even actively distanced himself from the MTV version. There’s no word as to whether O’Brien is involved with this new effort, though my gut instinct says he wouldn’t be interested.
And it strikes me that attempting a remake of Rocky Horror strikes me is an even worse idea than making a PG-13 Hellraiser film. Rocky Horror is one of those films that exceeds the sum of its many great parts. While I have a few problems with the film’s second half in terms of story, I really don’t think that there is any way that a new version could improve upon the film we already have. At best, it could come off as a loving tribute to the original, and presumably Murphy has already done this with next week’s Rocky Horror-themed Glee episode, so why would he want to do it again? At worst, a remake will fall to the temptation of modernizing the music and who really needs a version of “Time Warp” with hip hop beats mixed in or some other such misguided attempt at appealing to “the youth market”?
