High Noon to Get a Remake

That may be a bit of an exaggeration. Remakes of classic films aren’t a recent phenomenon, but they’ve become more prominent as film budgets explode into the range of small countries’ GDPs. The consequence is that studios are more likely to go for “safe” ideas, rather than take big risks on new ideas. This year saw a new Ben-Hur. The story is actually a novel from the nineteenth century, but most know it for the 1959 Classic with a capital “C.” Even if the new film is technically an adaptation of the novel, the comparisons to the Charlton Heston film were inevitable.

Now it looks like High Noon will receive the remake treatment. The original film tells of a newlywed sheriff soon to retire who must pick up his pistol one last time to defend his town against an outlaw gang. Unfortunately for him, the townsfolk won’t lend their aid. The premise was recycled into the John Wayne film, Rio Bravo, and the Sean Connery science fiction film, Outland. The remake will update the setting from the Wild West to a Cartel-plagued US-Mexican border.