Sequels, Remakes, on the Horizon for Hollywood Through 2012

According to The Numbers, which provides all sorts of interesting tidbits of information about the movie industry, there are an awful lot of sequels and even some interesting remakes on the horizon. I figured I'd check out their Movie Release Schedule and it was interesting to see that the next three years have been planned out in advance. Some of these, such as Spider-Man 5 and Shrek 5 to be announced in late 2012 come as no surprise to anyone. In fact, if you weren't already convinced that Hollywood was going to exploit these movies for all they were worth when their third incarnation was unleashed to the public you were fooling yourself.

However I was interested to see that a remake of Poltergeist should be out in November of next year. The classic movie is an interesting story about a haunted house delivered in a contemporary fashion back in 1982. Like a lot of movies of the eighties that showed the suburban yuppie side of Southern California, (arguably E.T. the Extra Terrestrial does this) you get both the feel for the culture and the quiet, understated, horror of loosing your child to the television set. This would probably be lost in the remake, as has been the case with other horror remakes like Halloween and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It is hard to duplicate the horror inherent in just the sloppy editing of movies from the seventies and eighties, let alone their attempts at doing something that involved a huge budget.

Another interesting movie will be The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is obviously the next installation in that series. Not to be forgotten, the next Harry Potter film is broken down into two parts, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. There is also The Hobbit and The Hobbit Sequel (assuming that is what it is called), due in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, it's sequel, The First Avenger: Captain America, Green Lantern, and Thor are among some of the upcoming movies from comic books on the horizon. Enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting the sequel to Tron, Tron: Legacy. Have you heard about Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Nightmare on Elm Street, A (2010) or Shrek Forever After? What about The A-Team , Footloose, Red Dawn, Gulliver's Travels, Logan's Run, or RoboCop? Even Superman is not dead; Superman: The Man of Steel is on the horizon, and who can forget about Voltron?

A lot of movies are still to be announced, and a lot could change between now and then, but from what it looks like, an awful lot of eighties movies are going to be remade, with sequels (assuming that they're profitable, and a lot of sequels of current movies are going to continue to be made. The second coming of the eighties should be history, but there is a lot more coming from Hollywood in the distant future. I'm sure a lot of you saw this coming; one thing is for sure, the winning formula that keeps Hollywood profitable now, shows no sign of letting up ...