Movie reboots are always risky business and in recent years we’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly, when it comes to studios trying to breathe new life into an old story.
But 2017 looks pretty promising for movie lovers, with some high-profile reboots coming our way that might just be better than the originals.
Beauty and The Beast
Dan Stevens and Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast
In a perfect piece of casting, Emma Watson stars as Belle in this live-action reimagining of Disney’s classic 1990 animation. Dan Stevens stars opposite as The Beast, while Luke Evans takes on the role of the hated Gaston.
The film also features a terrific voice cast including, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Ian McKellen and Emma Thompson, bringing to life the cursed inhabitants of the enchanted castle.
Watson has promised to bring a fresh, feminist twist to the tale, which includes giving Belle a backstory beyond just her being a bookworm. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the actress dished: “We created a backstory for her, which was that she had invented a kind of washing machine, so that, instead of doing laundry, she could sit and use that time to read instead. So, yeah, we made Belle an inventor.”
Beauty and The Beast is scheduled for release in March 2017.
Watch the trailer for Beauty and The Beast below:
Power Rangers
The Power Rangers are back in 2017
Those mighty morphin’ Power Rangers have been away from our screens for too long, but 2017 will see the return of the teenaged superheroes. Dacre Montgomery leads the cast as the Red Ranger, with Naomi Scott as the Pink Ranger, RJ Cyler as the Blue Ranger, Ludi Lin as the Black Ranger and Becky G as the Yellow Ranger.
The cast also includes Bryan Cranston as Zordon, the mentor of the Power Rangers, with Bill Hader as his robot assistant Alpha 5 and Elizabeth Banks as villain Rita Repulsa.
Fans who grew up watch the original ‘Power Rangers’ series on Saturday mornings might be happy to know that this reboot is being touted as less childish than the original series.
Speaking to the Huffington Post, Bryan Cranston teased: “This is as different a reimagining as the ‘Batman’ television series as it became the ‘Batman’ movie series. You can’t compare those two, and nor can you compare this movie version of the ‘Power Rangers’ to that television series. It’s unrecognisable for the most part.”
Power Rangers is scheduled for released in March 2017
Watch the teaser trailer for Power Rangers below:
Baywatch
Zac Efron, Dwayne Johnson and Alexandra Daddario in Baywatch
Zac Efron and Dwayne Johnson team up for this tongue-in-cheek reboot of everyone’s favourite 90s lifeguard drama. Johnson stars as head lifeguard Mitch Buchannon, who doesn’t really take to his new, young recruit, Olympic athlete Matt Brody (Efron).
Slow-mo running in Pamela Anderson’s iconic red swimsuit as CJ Parker is model-turned-actress Kelly Rohrbach, while Bollywood megastar Priyanka Chopra plays villain Victoria Leeds. They’re also be cameos from Anderson and David Hasselhoff.
From the first teaser trailer the movie looks to be in the same vain as 21 Jump Street, by not taking itself too seriously and bringing a mix of nostalgia and all the laughs we’d expect from an Efron/Johnson pairing.
Baywatch is scheduled for release in May 2017
