As Hollywood continues to mine its existing IPs to see where it can capitalise on the success of previously made titles, The Bodyguard is the latest film to be resurrected for the modern era.
The 1992 romantic drama, which starred Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, is being reimagined by Matthew López, the Tony-nominated playwright of The Inheritance.
Production companies Kasdan Pictures and Rideback are behind the project and are no doubt hoping to replicate the success of the first film which grossed more than USD $400 million at the worldwide box office and has what is considered the bestselling movie soundtrack of all time, with several chart-topping original songs from Houston.
Lawrence Kasdan, who will produce the reboot, also served as writer-producer on the original.
According to Variety, some of the new cast combinations that have been thrown into the ring are fairly out there — such as Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson to Channing Tatum and Cardi B. For now, now cast announcements have been made for the new project.
The Bodyguard, as you might well remember, is centred on the story of singer and actress Rachel Marron (Houston) who needs protection after she begins receiving death threats from a stalker. Enter: Frank Farmer (Costner) a gruff, former Secret Service agent who begrudgingly agrees to serve as Rachel’s bodyguard.
Of course, they end up developing feelings for each other and things get a little messy plotwise, but this is the film that brought us Houston’s version of Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’, so we won’t hear a bad word about it.
In fact, the soundtrack to the film ended up winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and singles ‘I Have Nothing’ and ‘Run to You’ both received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Unfortunately, the film itself didn’t fare so well, racking up a shameful seven nominations at the 13th Golden Raspberry Awards, including for Worst Picture, Worst Actor for Costner and Worst Actress for Houston.
And yet, fans of the original seem pretty perturbed by the idea of somenone trying to improve on it, with many taking to Twitter to air their grievances.
“We don’t want it,” wrote on person. “Not every movie needs a damn remake especially one as good as The Bodyguard.”
& We don’t want it. Not every movie needs a damn remake especially one as good as The Bodyguard. https://t.co/l0D2U46fyH
— 1963 (@hourlywhitney) September 15, 2021
“I refuse to watch a remake of The Bodyguard… just nope,” wrote another.
I refuse to watch a remake of The Bodyguard… just nope.
— Jillian (@Pheramuse) September 15, 2021
And yet another shared this opinion: “This is such a horrible idea. There is no need for a remake of the legendary movie, The Bodyguard. Hollywood refusing to invest in new talent and create new stories is pure laziness at this point.”
This is such a horrible idea. There is no need for a remake of the legendary movie, The Bodyguard. Hollywood refusing to invest in new talent and create new stories is pure laziness at this point. https://t.co/ou7ameQCWW
— 𝐵𝑒𝒸𝒸𝒶 (@MJFINESSELOVER) September 15, 2021
Hopefully López can prove the naysayers wrong — he definitely seems to be the right man for the job given his play The Inheritance has been called “the most important American play of the century” and has won the Olivier Award, Drama Desk Award, Evening Standard Theatre Award, London Critics’ Circle Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama League Award, GLAAD Media Award, WhatsOnStage Award and the South Bank Sky Arts Award.
López is also currently working on a film adaptation of the novel Leading Men, which focuses on legendary writer Tennessee Williams and his longtime partner Frank Merlo.
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