Johnny Five Lives Again

I have to admit that I've got serious soft spot for the original Short Circuit.  Yes, it's over-the-top and campy but it's also barrels of fun.  The robot design is wonderfully 80s (and Wall-E-esque), Ally Sheedy is totally adorable, and Fisher Stevens...pardon me, Oscar winner Fisher Stevens gives one of the most delightfully racist performances since Mickey Rooney went full-Asian in Breakfast At Tiffany's.  The sequel, however, is pretty rancid, despite Indian Fisher Stevens getting promoted to lead human.

Deadline reports that Dimension is moving forward with their proposed remake of the property and are negotiating with director Tim Hill to take the reigns.  Hill is far from what I would call an inspired choice, having previously brought us Alvin & The Chipmunks, Hop, and Garfield 2: Feline Boogaloo.  I read the script for this a while back and "unfortunate" would be a generous description.  The story is very kid-friendly, with Number Five escaping and being discovered by a lonely young science nerd whose single father is one of the robot's inventors.    With Hill's directing career consisting almost entirely of movies featuring humans learning important life lessons from various CG creatures, I'd say the chances of Number Five being realized practically to be non-existent.

The Internet seems to be going bananas in light of this announcement, and while I do love the original, I find it hard to get up in arms about this development.  At the end of the day, it's a movie about a talking robot, which is hardly an original concept, nor one we're likely to never see implemented again.  Who cares if they call this particular one Short Circuit?  I've still got Steve Guttenberg and brown-face Fisher Stevens on DVD.