Zemeckis scuttles ‘Submarine’ plans
When it was announced that Robert Zemeckis was going to remake the classic Beatles animated film “Yellow Submarine” that sounded like the worst idea since some knucklehead executive decided to make the board game “Battleship” into a movie.
It’s hard to imagine how anyone could improve on the beautiful animation in the original 1968 film. No matter what Zemeckis did, it would have been compared and you can bet the comparisons wouldn’t have been favorable.
I saved the last question in my recent interview with Zemeckis for his new film “Flight” to ask him about the Beatles project. It was great to hear that the Oscar-winning director has decided to pass on making a new “Yellow Submarine.” One of the reasons he decided not to do it had to do with some management changes at Disney, the studio that would have made the movie. His other reason makes far more sense.
“I just decided that I shouldn’t do any remakes,” Zemeckis says. “I don’t know how many more films I have in me, but it would be best if I just stayed away from remakes.”
All you have to do is look at the work Zemeckis has done — from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” to “The Polar Express” — to know the director has the skills to make a remake work. There’s just some hallowed film ground that should never be touched like “Yellow Submarine.” Congrats to Zemeckis for making the right call.