When Amazon acquired MGM in a multi-billion dollar deal, it was inevitable that more than a handful of the studio’s classic properties were going to be dusted off and slapped with a fresh coat of paint, but there are still a lot of hidden gems in the back catalogue that went untouched before the legendary studio decided a sale was required.
Of course, we’ve been living in the age of IP-driven content for decades already, so nobody’s going to be shocked to discover that every single title named internally as a priority is going to be either a remake, reboot, reinvention, legacy sequel, or expansion of some kind. We wish it wasn’t always the case, but that’s how Hollywood has been working for a long time, and it’s not going to change anytime soon.
To give you an indication of just how heavily Jeff Bezos’ monolithic corporation is dedicated to the art of reinvention, Jeff Sneider named a smattering of franchises poised to become focal points of the MGM strategy, and it’s telling that almost all of them have been repurposed a handful of times previously.
RoboCop has two sequels and a failed reboot to its name, as does supernatural series Poltergeist, while the in-development refresh of The Thomas Crown Affair is the reboot of a remake. Meanwhile, the extended Rocky universe is nine films deep with Creed III now in theaters with more to come, Legally Blonde is set to scratch that nostalgic itch, while Stargate spawned an entire multimedia universe covering film, television, live-action, animation, video games, comic books and much more.
Originality be damned, it looks like we’re being set up to have a hefty mouthful of Memberberries shoved down our throats.
