A Rocky Horror Remake for TV Is One of the Worst Ideas Ever, so It’s Happening

You know – for probably the only time in my life, I’m hoping that protests by the religious right against sexually ambiguous content actually work. That’s how much I don’t want to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show remade for Fox TV.

Does anyone outside of a studio executive’s office think this is a good idea? The original, while not something I’m as huge a fan of as many, was a transgressive piece of work that inspired a grassroots, creative fan base all midnight movies still aspire to (The Room has gotten close, but for very different reasons). Now, I’ve seen it done onstage as a musical, which it was originally, reconceived for cinema, but that strikes me as a different thing than remaking a movie (which this explicitly is, rather than a re-adaptation of the play), and a movie so unique that you can really only make either a pale copy, or something so different it barely resembles the source material.

Let me guess – they want Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Frank ‘N Furter, right?

Like was the original plan, the remake is expected to stick faithfully to the text and the score but reimagine the story visually.

Is it mean of me to critique the phrase “like was the original plan”? That aside, what part of the story needs a visual reimagining? Tim Curry in that outfit is as iconic as movie characters get.

I can’t wait till they decide to do this for The Room, too.