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Sunday
09Nov2008

Hayden Christensen to Star in 'Mona Lisa' Remake

DateSunday, November 9, 2008 at 1:00AM
Uh...what?

If you ever saw Mona Lisa, you'd be surprised to learn that it's being remade. That's not a slight against the Neil Jordan film, because it's actually pretty good - got an Oscar nomination and the whole bit - but it's not exactly one of those movies you always think they should try again. And yet, here we are, and the role of Bob Hoskins will now be played by Hayden Christensen.

Huh?

Screen Daily reports that the new version will be both contemporized and transplanted from England to the United States, and that HandMade Films will spend about $8 million on the project, circling March 2009 for a production date. "The original film still stands up. HandMade has a lot of little gems in its library, but not all of them will stand up for a remake," said Michael Ryan of HandMade.

"A lot of people do remember the original movie and it's a great story. The original film was a long time ago, and it did huge business in the UK."

Considering that the film about a small-time crook-turned-driver carting around a young prostitute never played in over 200 theaters in America, its $6 million box office in this country was pretty impressive, too.

I have no idea what the filmmakers see of Bob Hoskins' burly performance in young Anakin Skywalker. So I guess this will have a slightly different vibe. But this curious case gets even more interesting: Mona Lisa will be directed by Larry Clark, the controversial photographer who broke through in the early 1970s with his book, Tulsa, which chronicled teenage drug abuse, sex, and gunplay. Over 20 years later, he became a film director, causing just as much debate with his debut movie, Kids.

HandMade reports that more casting announcements will be made soon, and that they are also producing a remake of The Long Good Friday, which will shoot next spring in Miami under the direction of Paul W.S. Anderson (the "other" Paul Anderson). HandMade Films was created by Beatle George Harrison to produce Monty Python's The Life of Brian, and went on to make the very forgettable Shanghai Surprise, plus Time Bandits and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

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AuthorColin Boyd | | in , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

Great. So does Hayden pout and cry while driving around Simone? Good Luck filling the shoes of Bob Hoskins.

Sunday, November 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterChristian Avila

Hollywood producers still have this abysmal habit of trying to piggyback on the rep very good foreign films & remaking them with cute lightweight leads. They have zero respect for anything about the originals, except their profitability.
They could @ least cast someone like Buscemi, in the lead.

Thursday, December 4, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterrogerscorpion

GAY!

Thursday, December 4, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterC-Money

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