In Hollywood as in any business you do what you gotta do to survive, and a sad fact is that remakes of established properties tend to do pretty well. They may be a creative wasteland for the most part, but audiences flock to what's familiar and that's just the way it is. Morgan Creek Productions, a studio that produced more than 70 movies since 1988, recognizes this and is selling off their library of titles so they can get moving on some remakes of movies you probably love.
Morgan Creek is holding on to five titles they have the rights to in order to eventually remake them: Major League, The Exorcist, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Flying Tigers, and Young Guns. A few are already in development as we speak, starting with the baseball comedy Major League (my favorite sports movie ever, by the way), best known for a spiky-haired Charlie Sheen as Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn. A few years ago writer/director David S. Ward said he had written a screenplay for a fourth film that would completely ignore the awful third movie, Major League: Back to the Minors. It's worth noting that Ward co-wrote that one, too, so he only has himself to blame.
The rights to William Friedkin's The Exorcist have been under Morgan Creek's control for some time, and they've used it to produce the last three films which nobody has liked. 1994's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and its sequel were a big reason for Jim Carrey's success. It went on to become a mini-franchise with an animated series and the dreadful TV film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr.
So this is pretty lousy news, but it must really suck for Morgan Creek CEO Jim Robinson who has been forced to clear out their library just to remake movies they already own.
