Actors do love repeat collaborations, don’t they? Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Not normally in as quicker succession as this though.

Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: First Class) and Bradley Cooper’s (The A-Team) previous collaboration on David O Russell’s The Silver Lining Playbook, is barely in post-production and won’t be released until November this year, but already the two have signed for another film together.

Serena, which is based on the 2008 novel by Ron Rash, will see the pair as two over-ambitious newly-weds George and Serena Pemberton, who move to North Carolina in 1929 to build a timber empire. However, when Serena discovers she can’t have kids, she develops an unhealthy determination to kill George’s illegitimate son.

So, she’s ambitious and vicious? Gripping stuff.

The film was initially set to be directed by Darren Aronofsky back in 2010, with Angelina Jolie considering the role of Serena. Obviously those plans fell through and the project is now to be directed by Danish born, Susanne Bier.

Jennifer and Bradley’s previous collaboration, The Silver Linings Playbook is about a former teacher, who moves back in with his mother and attempts to reconcile with his ex-wife, having spent four years in a mental institution.

Bradley who was last seen in comedy sequel The Hangover Part II, will next be in Brian Klugman’s The Words opposite Olivia Wilde and Zoe Saldana.

Lawrence in the meantime has a small supporting role in indie Like Crazy which is currently playing in cinemas across the UK, before the release of the eagerly anticipated The Hunger Games in March.

1.
The Original: The A- Team, a television series in the 80′s that was hugely popular.

The Remake: The A-Team, a feature film starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton Jackson, and Sharlto Copley.

Flop Factor: Die-hard fans hated it, first-time viewers hated it, even the original cast hated it. People declared it ruined their childhood memories of the original, the script was terrible and there was a serious overdose of testosterone.

2.
The Original: Psycho, 1960, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The Remake: Psycho, 1988, directed by Gus Van Zant

Flop Factor: Well, for starters, who on earth cast Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates? It got two Golden Raspberry Awards, one for Worst Remake or Sequel and the other for Worst Director. That says it all really doesn’t it?

3.
The Original: The Italian Job, 1969, starring Michael Caine.

The Remake: The Italian Job, 2003, starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Donald Sutherland.

Flop Factor: The original is considered something of a British institution and one of the best films of all time, so why they felt a remake was necessary is beyond us. The film itself is generally not thought of as that terrible, but it is certainly not a patch on the original.

4.
The Original: Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), 1997, with Penélope Cruz

The Remake: Vanilla Sky, 2001, with Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Penélope Cruz (in the same role)

Flop Factor: Although the plot is very complex (or even confusing), the original received very positive reviews and was hailed as remarkable and beautiful. The remake however, got negative reviews on the whole and it was thought that Cruise, who both produced and starred in the film was using it to fulfil his narcissistic desires.

5.
The Original: Planet of the Apes, 1968, starring Charlton Heston and directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.

The Remake: Planet of the Apes, 2001, starring Mark Wahlberg, Helen Bonham Carter and directed by Tim Burton

Flop Factor: The original was considered to be one of the best of the year and it is still one of the greatest movies for a lot of people. Despite having Tim Burton, the remake didn’t quite work. Viewers thought the actors were too covered in prosthetics and make-up to actually see any acting and the ambiguous ending really threw everyone off course.

6.
The Original: Alfie, 1966, with Michael Caine and directed by Lewis Gilbert.

The Remake: Alfie, 2004, with Jude Law and Sienna Miller.

Flop Factor: The 1966 version won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated for several Academy Awards. Jude Law’s version of course couldn’t live up to that, he’s no Michael Caine, is he? And all anyone remembers about it is that it’s when he got together with Sienna Miller for the first time.

7.
The Original: The Vanishing , 1988, directed by George Sluizer.

The Remake: The Vanishing, 1993 from the same director but for an English audience rather than Dutch or French, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock.

Flop Factor: Described by Time Out’s Nigel Floyd as “a misjudged, lobotomized Hollywood remake,” it clearly did not live up to the critically acclaimed original, which was terrifying without any hint of clichés.

8.
The Original: The Innocents, 1961, starring Deborah Kerr, Michael Redgrave and Megs Jenkins, directed by Jack Clayton and screenplay by William Archibald and Truman Capote.

The Remake: The Others, 2001, directed by Alejandro Amenábar, starring Nicole Kidman.

Flop Factor: Both films are based on the novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, a ghost story published in 1868. The Innocents is regularly described by critics as one of the best psychological thrillers ever made and the legendary Martin Scorsese placed the film on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time. The Others on the other hand, although it won some awards in Spain and Nicole Kidman was awarded a BAFTA, it just wasn’t as frightening as the original that genuinely left the viewer shook up.

9.
The Original: L’ultimo bacio, 2001, directed by Gabriele Muccino.

The Remake: The Last Kiss, 2006, starring Zach Braff and Rachel Bilson.

Flop Factor: There is nothing technically wrong with the remake, the acting is pretty good, the screenplay isn’t too bad, it’s just the ending that caves into Hollywood conventions and lets it down. The Italian version is entertaining and moving but above all realistic, whereas the American has just a little too much of that Hollywood sugar coating.

10.
The Original: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, 1974, directed by Tobe Hooper and written collaboratively by Hooper and Kim Henkel

The Remake: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, 2003, co-produced by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper, who were part of the original.

Flop Factor: The original is one of the most successful independent films of all time. It caused a lot of controversy at the time because of the violence and gory special effects, but that didn’t stop people recognising it as a film that absorbed the viewer while terrifying them at the same time. The remake just tried too hard to scare us, so we weren’t scared at all. Not surprisingly it was nominated for a 2004 Golden Raspberry Award for ‘Worst Remake/Sequel’

Well, what have we learnt? I think it’s fair to take away from this that it’s just not worth making a remake, especially if the original received lots of awards and was critically acclaimed. It also appears that the 60s was a great decade for films, as most of the classics on our list are from then. So, Hollywood, listen up – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and save yourselves some cash in the process!

1. Toy Story 3 - £3.1m
2. Inception - £1.7m
3. The Last Airbender – £1.7m
4. Knight and Day - £1.5m
5. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – £1.1m
6. Step Up 3D - £1.1m
7. The Karate Kid - £764k
8. The A-Team - £762k
9. Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore - £488k
10. Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue - £288k

Well, it seems that Toy Story 3 is still going strong, and this is no surprise – it’s rare Pixar films leave the top ten; if ever, actually. The adventures of Woody and Buzz are definitely still entertaining crowds all over the world, and in the UK its impressive cumulative take of almost £59m is more than enough to secure it in British cinematic memory. With the cash it’s pulling in it’s likely it’ll stay in cinemas for another few weeks at least, having done only 4 in the UK so far. It’s just dropped from USA cinemas, and having secured a total so far of $899m world-wide against a $200m budget. It’s done the franchise proud in its last outing (bar the videogames, possible TV appearances… the list goes on – we thank you, Disney Channel).

Inception is still going strong, and those who haven’t yet seen the film are still able to check out the well-reviewed mind-bender. A new listing, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, has taken the third spot, though its meagre £1.6m takings may reflect the poor reviews. The list differs little as we sift through the low-in-takings; Knight and Day, Step Up 3D, The Karate Kid and The A-Team.

Newcomers include Nicolas Cage’s latest outing, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This is an interesting departure for the tax-evasive, rather reckless actor, but it’s nonetheless popular, and has landed fifth on the UK box office chart for the weekend just gone. Perhaps it shows that in a world where all cinema and television that involves mythology is either Greek or involves vampirism to some degree, magic and the good old Harry Potter fantasy charm still come out top, or at least fifth.

Sitting at the bottom of heap this last weekend however, is the Disney Tinkerbell film. This is, largely, a huge cash-in on the character who (if you remember the old animated Peter Pan), is utterly silent except when she speaks in Peter’s ear. However, this time she finally speaks, and she’s brought friends! Sadly, child audiences around the world are far too interested in the plight of Woody, Buzz and Andy’s other toys (as were the adults who grew up loving the first two films; you know who you are).

Last weekend (from Friday the 6th to Sunday the 8th, 2010), the box office rankings were as follows:

1. Toy Story 3 – £4.7m
2. Knight and Day – £2.4m
3. Inception - £2.4m
4. Step Up 3D – £2m
5. Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore – £1.6m
6. The Karate Kid – £1.4m
7. The A-Team – £1.4m
8. Shrek Forever After – £362k
9. Eclipse – £324k
10. Gainsbourg – £87k

Well, it’s hardly the least predictable box office weekend, is it?

Toy Story 3 seems likely to stay at the top of the charts for a while yet, showing on at least a hundred more screens than Knight and Day. At only three weeks into what will be at least a month or perhaps more of Pixar’s latest in cinemas, they should continue to pull in the big cash. At the moment, the last adventures of Woody, Buzz and friends has taken £51m in the UK in under a month, and a whopping $396m in the States after a solid eight weeks.

Knight and Day‘s rise above Inception is a surprise, given that it was universally panned by critics across the globe. However, this popularity may fall fast, and it’s worth noting that Di Caprio’s mind-bending outing has been sitting in cinemas a good fortnight longer. The pair of them are doing well financially, and as Knight and Day bowed out of US markets last month after a paltry $93m, Inception‘s sitting pretty on $227m thus far. Just goes to show what around of 2,500 more screens can do for a film in another country!

British dance flick Step Up 3D is doing fairly well in fourth, but how well original UK films will do after the demise of the UK Film Council is yet to be seen. However, for a fairly niche dance film, £2m isn’t stellar for an opening weekend, but a worldwide gross (thus far) of around $30m should see it past its budget, fingers crossed. Cats and Dogs is flailing further down the rankings, hailed as a complete horror of a kid’s film and worth avoiding – the numbers speak the truth.

The bottom five are an interesting mix, from the completely pointless and milking-the-cash-cow Shrek Forever After clinging onto cinemas in the UK after a six-week run netting it around $660m worldwide so far. The Karate Kid and The A-Team make up the action films slipping down the list, while Eclipse continues to make Twi-hards happy bunnies and Gainsbourg brings up the world-film rear. Another week – let’s see what happens when the heavy hitters of the autumn start stepping up to the plate.

After seeing the film we’ve spoken about on the site quite a bit already (I’m presuming he did, otherwise he’s being a little possessive of his former moniker as B.A. Baracus), T had this to say:

“People die in the film and there’s plenty of sex but when we did it, no one got hurt and it was all played for fun and family entertainment,” T states.”These seem to be elements nobody is interested in anymore. It was too graphic for me. I’ve no doubt it will do big business at the box office but it’s nothing like the show we turned out every week.”

I’d have to agree with him, here, and it’s interesting to see that someone who used to star in the same IP was willing to speak out against the fact that the film would have never been released without a ton of sex and violence. The original did contain a lot of violence, but no death and most definitely not the ludicrously open objectification of women that today’s cinema tends to lean towards whenever it fumbles for a plot after half an hour of explosions and opening credits.

Then again, perhaps the source material is at fault? T states that there was “plenty of sex” in the original show, and considering it’s about the same material and a bunch of Vietnam veterans, my money’s on violence being the order of the day, really. I suppose it’s up to the audience, though the viewing figures for many recent action-blockbuster adaptations of old material seem to feel the need to lash nudity and blood all over something before it’ll sell. What’re your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with the original bad-arse of the A-Team?

So, if you’re looking at this film and wondering what exactly they were thinking when they got this new foo’ in to replace the old foo’, then you’ve come to the right place. Simply, this has taken the hugely successful TV series of the 1980s, focusing on a group of four ex-Special Forces men doing mercenary work whilst on the run from the US government. Not too far-fetched then, right? It was a massive success because of its array of humorous and over-the-top characters, violence, and bizzare storylines, and this should suit any audience willing to pump money into anything directed by Ridley Scott (though I do warn you, he’s also down to do a Universal adapation of the Monopoly board game. You have been warned.

The film, at this point, has been in development for around fifteen years (we’re serious), going through many different ideas and, logically, writers as it it was finally worked into a watchable narrative. How watchable is yet to be seen, but I’m estimating that a rather large van, smooth-talking special-agenty types and a colossal amount of pyrotechnics mean that no one’s going to walk out of the cinema too upset if the narrative isn’t Shakespearian.

Replacing B.A. Baracus has, most would wager, been the most difficult task – especially as the original (played by the now sell-out advert man Mr. T, who endorses everything from chocolate to games he’ll never play) is still working in front of cameras. We’re hoping for a cameo, as you never know – even Marvin the Paranoid Android’s original robotic form was given a small part in the remake of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. However, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, a mixed martial arts fighter, seems an apt replacement, though if he doesn’t pity a single foo’ then most will be disappointed.

Most importantly though – judge the remake for what it is – a modern re-envisioning of a classic TV show about a quartet of mercs in a van. Even though we’re likely to have more “modern” aspects slipped in for today’s audiences (cue the geezer-pleasing use of Jessica Biel and an absent narrative), it’s likely to stir up interest in other 80s TV shows, much like the recent surge in comic adaptations has. The trailer for the A-Team, released in the UK next Friday, is below. Let us know what you think.

According to Variety, the Schindler’s List star is in talks to play John Hannibal Smith in the role made famous by the late George Peppard.
The Hangover star Bradley Cooper has been suggested as Templeton Faceman Peck, while rapper Common and Woody Harrelson have been linked to the BA Baracus and Howling Mad Murdock.

Gladiator director Sir Ridley Scott and his brother Tony are onboard to produce the TV adaptation about four soldiers on the run after being wrongly convicted of an armed raid.

Production is due to begin on the film in August for a June 2010 release.