The perils of print interviews: sarcasm doesn't translate so well in black and white. Such is the lesson learned by "American Reunion" writer-director Jon Hurwitz, who -- with his partner Hayden Schlossberg -- joked in a recent interview with Moviehole that they wanted to take a crack at the "Back to the Future" franchise.
"We want Back to the Future, just come out and say it," Hurwitz said to Schlossberg during the interview. "That's our favorite trilogy. We're always having this conversation."
He continued: "I wouldn't want to do it now because people would be like, 'Oh, there's no way it will be as good as the original.' But 30 years from now when Spielberg's like 90 and those guys are kind of on their way out, and those movies just look really old because we're watching movies that are old, literally in two dimensions or something, it would be great to have all these classics that you're able to remake."
Following the expected amount of outrage Hurwitz's comments caused on the Internet, the screenwriter took to Twitter to clarify his remarks in an extended conversation with the website Slashfilm.
@slashfilm LIke your article, but the truth is, we were joking around and it was taken out of context. Nobody respects BTTF more than us.
-- Jon Hurwitz (@jonhurwitz) March 27, 2012
@slashfilm Thanks dude. It all started with us talking about how as diehard Karate Kid fans, we were furious when KK was being remade.
-- Jon Hurwitz (@jonhurwitz) March 27, 2012
@slashfilm Then it got into a conversation about the business of remakes. And we talked about how KK proved that nerds like us make up...
-- Jon Hurwitz (@jonhurwitz) March 27, 2012
@slashfilm ...one day be remade. We speculate BTTF will one day be remade, because its so fucking awesome the world needs those stories...
-- Jon Hurwitz (@jonhurwitz) March 27, 2012
@slashfilm ,,,but if it were to be remade, we hope its WAAAAAY in the future.We were totally joking when saying we wanted it.,,,
-- Jon Hurwitz (@jonhurwitz) March 27, 2012
@slashfilm ...Joking about remaking BTTF is like when Larry David jokes about Hodgkin's or Trey & Matt joke about AIDS. One of the few...
-- Jon Hurwitz (@jonhurwitz) March 27, 2012
@slashfilm ...truly taboo topics.
-- Jon Hurwitz (@jonhurwitz) March 27, 2012
Of course, just because Hurwitz and Schlossberg aren't planning to touch your sacred "Back to the Future" memories doesn't mean they're safe from reinterpretation. Original "BTTF" creators Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale and composer Alan Silvestri are in "preliminary discussions" about bringing "Back to the Future" to Broadway in the near-ish future.
[via Slashfilm]
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The Huffington Post | By Christopher Rosen Posted: 03/27/2012 12:48 pm Updated: 03/27/2012 12:48 pm