Gremlins 3 – DTV & CGI?

Apparnetly, the next big thing in Hollywood will be Direct-to-Video sequels to big screen hits. I guess we have Disney to blame for starting the trend, with all those DTV sequels to THE LION KING, LITTLE MERMAID, and CINDERELLA. Now there’s talk we may be seeing more GHOSTBUSTERS, LOST BOYS, and GREMLINS.

The thought of the later apparently does not please Mike Fennell and Joe Dante – the producer and the director, respectively, of GREMLINS and GREMLINS 2 – neither of whom plans to be involved with the proposed GREMLINS 3.

Joe Dante told Empire magazine, “GREMLINS was governed by the technology that produced it. Now it would be CGI, and you could do anything. There may be places for the jokes to do [The White House?] But you’ve got a company who owns the rights to a movie that they don’t quite understand. I think it’s going to be difficult for them to make another one.”

For myself, I look askance at the whole DTV route. It seems to be a way of making second-rate knock-offs. If you don’t think there’s enough juice left in a franchise to warrant another feature film, but you still think you can milke a few more dollars out of it – hey, making a cheap sequel and put it out on video, saving all the money that would have been wasted on advertising a major theatrical release. And since there’s not that much money on the line, there’s less need to worry about making a good film, because it will be much easier to recoup your investment even if not a whole lot of people love the movie.

As if Hollywood didn’t turn out enough junk already, here’s a way to make it easier to churn out even more.