Cult movies: there can be only one

Talent borrows, genius steals and Hollywood remakes. Directors and producers in Tinseltown short on inspiration often peruse the titles on the cult-movie shelf that haven’t yet been butchered in the name of a remake and update.

The Warriors, which will screen at Dublin’s Sugar Club on September 7th, nearly ended up having that fate. Walter Hill’s 1979 tale of a New York street gang dealing with aggro and acrimony on those mean streets was due to have a remake.

However, Tony Scott’s plan to relocate the film to Los Angeles never happened and the director’s death in 2012 seems to have scuppered the project. Scott had form in this area with his so-so remake of Joseph Sargent’s classic cult movie The Taking of Pelham 123.

The Warriors is not the only cult film to escape the clutches of Hollywood suits keen for a short-cut to a box-office smash. Heathers is one of those classic films that you’d imagine all manner of eejits would try to redo but, despite talk of a sequel and a TV version, it remains unsullied.

Other cult movies that have managed to stay clear of that kind of attention include: John Carpenter’s Escape From New York (although there was an attempt to do so featuring Gerard flaming Butler as Snake Plissken); Repo Man (even if director Alex Cox did rejig the title for Repo Chick in 2009); and Pink Flamingos (we imagine few would be brave enough to mess with John Waters’ seminal work).