Tuesday 14 July 2009

HAVE GUN - WILL REMAKE

Bernie Lomax is the Patron Saint of Hollywoodland. Bernie who? Bernie Lomax, the corpse of the hilarious cult comedy Weekend at Bernie's (1989) and its sequel, Weekend at Bernie's II (1993) - No, they're not zombie movies! - with the great comedian and actor Terry Kiser as Bernie (the man should have received an Oscar). Latest project to honour the glorious memory of Saint Bernie: a movie remake of The Big Valley!

According to The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i34c5832d35cf575948efe576bd75826a), Kate Edelman Johnson is planning a big screen remake of The Big Valley (1965-1969), a western series co-created by her father, Louis F. Edelman, and A.I. Bezzerides. Barbara Stanwick starred as Victoria Barkley, matriarch of the Barkley Ranch in California's San Joaquin Valley, near Stockton. Young Lee Majors and Linda Evans were in the cast.

The idea of Big Valley feature film is most intriguing. After all, the show was the less interesting of all the "Primetime western soaps" of the sixties, a copy of Bonanza (which got its own "legitimate" clone with The High Chaparral). And it's a movie, not a RHI miniseries. Honestly, the elementary elegance would be to ask Linda Evans to be the new head of the Barkley family and to phone the agent of Lee Majors. We're talking legends here, and Linda Evans won Hell's Kitchen UK this season. The catering would touch Heaven.

Update: Lee Goldberg on this movie project: http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2009/07/more-tv-on-the-big-screen.html

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