Splash...Again.

Yesterday I opened my roommate's Entertainment Weekly and learned, a little late in the game as apparently the news has been out for about a week, that Brian Grazer is involved in a re-make of Splash, the 1984 rom-com he produced and developed about a naive mermaid and a lonely New Yorker.  And according to Grazer, the preparations are very hush-hush and he can't talk about it much at all.  He did say there "is a star involved" and that they are inspired more by the original concept of the movie when it was still titled-- get ready for it- Wet.  Oh, and one more thing!  There's a twist to this version, as it's more from "the perspective of..." and this is where Grazer truly hushed up.



Now, Splash is one of my favorite films from my childhood years.  I saw it thirty four times before I stopped counting, and Daryl Hannah was my first childhood crush (unless you count the confusing tingling that happened every time Tommy from Alice walked into Mel's Diner).  I collected every article she appeared in... her cover feature in Rolling Stone?  It went into the Daryl Hannah scrapbook.

The article from People? Into the scrapbook.

Everywhere she was, I sought her out.  And for awhile, she was EVERYWHERE.  Clan Of The Cave Bear, Blade Runner, Reckless  (that last one I had to wait a while to see because it was a relatively filthy romance about "reckless" teen love against all odds).

But it was more than just Daryl Hannah  that won me over.  II already had a mermaid obsession, and the film itself is such a charming, quirky, uniquely eighties comedy.  It has a combination of comedic talents that I can't imagine them finding again.  Tom Hanks?  John Candy?  Eugene Levy?  Dodie Goodman??? And it's such a hopeful film.  Stories of mermaids and mortals up to that point, had all ended in tragedy.  SPOILER ALERT:  The fact that this one ends in such a sweet and wonderful way, with the man for once leaving everything behind for love-  It got me.  

Today, it's pretty easy to forget what a massive hit it was during its initial release.  It was one of the top ten grossing films of the year, the inspiration for a number of supernatural rom-coms like Date With An Angel, and Daryl Hannah's High Spirits, and "spawned" a sequel (which fell through when Tom Hanks couldn't do it and became a T.V. movie). And the film's ironic joke of naming the mermaid after Madison Avenue caused the name Madison to be one of the most popular names for girls in the early 21st century.  In fact, Disney's Ariel was originally a blond, but they made her a redhead in order to differentiate her from Madison.  

So, I love the film.  But I am not upset about this remake.  This new film will not ruin the impact of the original, and I think art inspired by art is an amazing thing.  Yes, I am tired of re-makes in general because in so many cases they seem like a money grab rather than a creative endeavor, and the success of the new Splash will largely depend on whether or not they can make a different kind of magic and tell a different story, that really needs to be told, and is not different just for the sake of being different. 

Which leads me to this twist that Grazer hinted at.  "the perspective of..."What?  The perspective of the mermaid?  I mean, the beautiful thing about the original is that it split the stories perspective.  It was about both of them.  Yes, Alan Bauer is the protagonist, but the movie is just as much about the sacrifices she is willing to make.  And if you tell it completely from her perspective, you get a modern day "Little Mermaid" (the Disney version with the happy ending where she doesn't get rejected by the man she sacrificed everything for and then turns into sea foam/a water spirit).

There is speculation that it will be gender switched, and about a merman, rather than a mermaid, which could frankly be a lot of fun.  Of course, then you have to deal with a lot of gender politics because the original was actually a bit unusual in that it's a story about a man giving up on the ideas of the "perfect" woman and opening himself up to real, messy love in which you are equal partners.  Having a story about a woman who's life is changed by the appearance of a merman, whom she then alters her entire existence to be with? Blah.  Been there.  Hate the message.

Regardless of how the film ultimately turns out, I'll be watching and reading to see how the story develops.

Personal Favorites: My Ten "Desert Island" Films (The Second Five)

6.   The Perks of Being A Wallflower:  This is my newest favorite, and wonderful on so many levels.  I loved the book and had high hopes for the film, which it ultimately exceeded.  The film can't beat the book's intimate nature, but perfectly brings to life every image and emotion the book evokes.  Plus, the actors are the perfect embodiments of the characters, even better than what I had imagined.  Ezra Miller is a multi-layered delight, the kid I wish I'd had the courage to be, and Logan Lehrman grabs is the kid I felt I was (but without his "baby deer in the headlights" beauty).  It really gets that feeling of powerlessness that so overwhelms us as teenagers and continues to plague us as adults.  It definitely has it's cheesey moments, but those moments (like the Rocky Horror sequence) are also the sequences that make me the most nostalgic. 

7.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarves:  The first, and to my mind the greatest of all the Disney animated features.  Artful, ornate, and timeless.  And I love Snow White for all her squeaky voiced naivete, because even though she may not hoist on armor and lead a battle, her strengths are kindness and optimism and a love of animals.  These are traits far more valuable to me than anything Kristen Stewart's sulky ass could manage, so suck it haters. .

8.  Splash:  I've always been fascinated by mermaids, used to sink down to the bottom of the neighbor's pool and look up at the surface, imagining the world above to be some strange and otherworldly place.  Splash looks at all the things that can hold love back and at loves power to overcome those obstacles

9.  The Wizard of Oz:  America's myth.  The greatest quest tale, and one that greatly influenced one of my other favorites, The Muppet Movie.  Pretty much a perfect film.  Iconic performances, iconic music, an aesthetic that has affected the way we see the world in ways we might never completely comprehend.  It's the story and film I hold closest to my heart, partially because it illustrates so perfectly the film's true message (no, not that "there's no place like home" b.s.) that whatever it is you long for, desire and wish to be is already inside you, and accessing it is easier than you ever imagined.    Bonus:  The back story of how everything came together to make this perfect film that almost wasn't is fascinating.  Additional bonus:  While the film owes a lot to the original source material, it doesn't simply regurgitate in unimaginative fashion what was in the book (like the first couple of Harry Potter films) but adds a modern, largely vaudevillian sensibility that makes it its own creature.   

10.  9 to 5:  Strong women kicking ass and taking names, getting what they deserve and doing it with flair.  Three perfect characters who buoy each other up rather than tear each other apart.  Plus those fantasy sequences are completely awesome on their own and I love how they're fueled by realities that foreshadowed their arrival.  I loved the film even more once I was old enough to get over being scandalized by the fact that my heroines smoked pot.  This film was also where I first learned the term "S & M" so it was educational on many levels.

So that's it, my favorite films, my "desert island" movies.  I'd love to hear about yours if you are so inclined to share...