Nicole Kidman To Star In Another ‘Invasion Of The Body Snatchers’ Remake

It’s common practice for Hollywood to remake an old movie, but today’s news must be some kind of record. They’re audaciously planning a remake of a remake of a remake.

Nicole Kidman has signed up for Invasion, the fourth version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers in fifty years.

It’s the oldest trick in the Hollywood book. When the world is in
trouble, dig out the aliens to act as a spooky ‘unknown threat’. War Of
The Worlds proved that. Scared of terrorists? The aliens are like
terrorists. Scared of US foreign policy? The aliens are a bit like
that, too. Except, you know, terrorists and world super-powers don’t
all suddenly die of the sniffles.

The original Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, made in 1956, had a
similar purpose. At the time, America was in the midst of a wild
anti-communist witch-hunt. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers was a famous
allusion to the political goings-on of the time. Whether it was for or
against communism was pretty much up to the viewer, though.

The story concerned itself with a small-town shrink who battled against the population, who were slowly being replaced with identical aliens. It was paranoid, creepy and a classic movie.

That didn’t stop Philip Kaufman from having another bash at Invasion Of The Body Snatchers in 1978. Donald Sutherland played a San Francisco public health inspector who battled against the… oh, you know. OK. This version has dated, and looks a bit camp now. But there’s a dog with a human head in it, and that’s gotta be worth something.

And then there was Body Snatchers, the 1993 Abel Ferrera remake. A family in a military base battles… etc. Because it’s a Ferrera flick, Body Snatchers upped the sex and violence quota considerably.

And that brings us to Nicole Kidman (DVDs) and Invasion. Early reports suggest that the film is going to draw together the two big current themes of alien/horror films. It’s being made by the company who remade The Grudge, so there’ll probably be a lot of creepy Asian-style scares, and the film will closely focus on Nicole’s fight to protect her family from the threat. Exactly like War Of The Worlds.

Would it be cynical to suggest that Invasion is just going to be a big War Of The Worlds pisstake, with Kidman playing a psychiatrist just to annoy Tom Cruise? We’ll have to wait and see.

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[story by Stuart Heritage]