A few weeks ago, Variety ran a story that The Walt Disney Company has lost their way with Gen-Z males. That’s ages 13-28, and writer Matt Donnelly noted that almost every media company has that same problem. It’s a cohort that has spent a lot of time in virtual worlds, echoing each other and not necessarily interacting the way that someone in my seasoned state deems vital. In the wake of Marvel and Lucasfilm allegedly faltering, the studio arm wants new properties — original properties, if you will.
And yet, something else happened a few weeks ago. When my friends at Matinee Heroes had me on to talk about Labryinth, host Craig Price asked me for my double feature choice, and I went with an almost forgotten Disney movie: Something Wicked This Way Comes. For years only available on blu-ray through the now defunct Disney Movie Club, this light horror movie appears on Disney+ today for the first time.
Adapted from Ray Bradbury’s classic novel, the Jack Clayton-directed film arose because in the late 1970s Disney perceived they had lost their way with Gen X. Though the studio meddled with it a bit (okay, a lot), it’s still an effectively creepy movie about a dark carnival coming to a small town and creating its new sideshow from the townspeople. Narrated by one of the two young boys at the center of the story, it didn’t quite make the connection Disney had hoped, but now…?
For years, it’s been rumored that Disney had a new script for a remake. Now’s the time. It’s step one in bringing back Gen-Z with a property they may not be as familiar with. Make the carnival something genuinely terrifying that can be ported to a solid game? Find a new younger actor that can have the disturbing gravitas of Jonathan Pryce, and there’s potential.
Granted, the Variety article says original properties. Tron: Ares opening next week probably doesn’t cut it. Though it has video game potential, centering it on a 53-year old actor isn’t the way to ride a lightcycle into a generation’s heart. (Never mind Jared Leto’s alleged unsavoriness.)
Original may not mean brand new, just ideas that haven’t been rehashed over and over for the last 20 years. Since I seem to have willed Something Wicked This Way Comes to the forefront of Disney+’s Halloween plans, I’ve got other ideas. Here are a few more gathering dust in the Disney vault that could be revived, rethought, and refreshed.
Caution: I have no illusions that someone with power at Disney will read this article and call my agent. Just throwing these into the ether, and remember that I’m 60 so my insight into what Gen-Z likes is… specious.
Condorman: Credit to comics creator Jamal Yaseem Igle for planting this one in my head. He noted that Disney was leaving money on the table by not doing a remake starring Glen Powell. Loosely based on Robert Sheckley’s novel The Game of X, Condorman starred Michael Crawford as a comic book artist who tested out his characters’ gadgets before he’d put them in a comic. He gets caught up in international espionage, and doesn’t wear the superhero suit of Condorman nearly often enough. But a new version could amp up the snark and have a bigger budget for action. Powell would handle it perfectly, playing a man in way over his head but loving the thrill of it all.
Dexter Riley: This was actually a trilogy starring a young Kurt Russell, set at the fictional Medfield College. In the 1990s, Disney remade the first movie, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, for the Disney Channel. Unfortunately, they made it with Kirk Cameron. Now would be the perfect time to bring back a well-rounded student athlete character who juggles the pressures of college and self-care. In the first movie, he basically merges with a mainframe computer — imagine Dexter sharing headspace with an AI. The second film, Now You See Him, Now You Don’t, has him discover an invisibility formula. The trilogy rounded out with The Strongest Man in the World, where Dexter discovers a formula for super-strength. The point is an ordinary college student having outlandish adventures, because of course he still runs afoul of the local crime syndicate.
Merlin Jones: Predating the Medfield College trilogy and meant as a TV series, this one’s set at Midvale College. Merlin is more dangerously close to budding mad scientist than Dexter Riley. Played by Tommy Kirk, the character’s experiments take slightly sillier directions. Disney got two mid-1960s movies out of the character: The Misadventures of Merlin Jones and The Monkey’s Uncle. A remake could make that monkey super-intelligent, moreso than Merlin Jones, and we’ve got potential Planet of the Apes-like hijinks.
The Mystery in Dracula’s Castle: Dracula actually isn’t involved. This was a TV movie from a Disney well of kidventures, but it would update well. Two kids are making a Super 8 movie near their summer beach house and use an abandoned light house as backdrop for a Dracula movie. As a kid would. Jewel thieves are using it as a hideout and dangerous hijinks ensue. Turn those kids into social media influencers trying to be spooky. Admittedly, jewel thieves don’t feel like the go to they used to be, but that’s a problem someone else would be paid to solve.
The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh: Based on a series of novels by Russell Thorndike, this was turned into 3 episodes of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color while also edited into a film called Dr. Syn, alias The Scarecrow. It’s another one not available on Disney+, with a blu-ray that was only available on that lamented Movie Club. Patrick McGoohan stars as the Reverend Dr. Christopher Syn, kindly 18th century village vicar by day, masked brigand by night. Since it’s McGoohan, your mileage on the “kindly” may vary. Dr. Syn has a secret past as the pirate Captain Clegg, but now acts as a sort of Romney Marsh Batman, in a truly terrifying Scarecrow outfit. He also has costumed assistants. They fight against the King of England at roughly the same time as the American Revolution. Really, it never doesn’t puzzle me that Disney hasn’t already revived this concept and folded it into Pirates of the Caribbean.
Bonus: the theme song is of note because it originally included the Scarecrow’s laugh, and for rereleases Disney edited the laugh out so as not to frighten children. Metal band Madd Hunter did a cover version, and it’s pretty good. Around the same time as Disney’s 1963 version, Hammer Studios made their version of Thorndike’s story, called Captain Clegg in the UK and Night Creatures in the US. Peter Cushing stars as the pirate turned parson (role and name changed to avoid a fight with Disney).
Zorro: Another one that could so clearly be done by any studio, Disney had been rumored to be working on a Zorro revival. If they can’t sell a masked vigilante with a sword fighting against the injustice of an oppressive government…
Again, none of this should be taken as a pitch. It just seems like Disney keeps going back to TRON, which I do love but as a franchise has not really produced great films. There. I said it. I love the original TRON and enjoy TRON Legacy, but I admit they’re not great. Let’s do something new with something old.
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