STYD is reporting that they’ve learned that Sony is possibly thinking about giving their Candyman franchise a makeover and even that they might ponder throwing a white guy in the role of the Candyman this time.
Now, remake news like this used to be pretty shocking when we heard it, but at this point, it’s just the norm. Any kind of movie that has any kind of following or nostalgic potential is destined to be re-made in one way or another, so just deal with it and hold on tight to the original copies, lest they be lost to time.
Plus, it’s obvious that Hollywood hates Clive Barker and will do everything in their power to ruin and/or bury anything adapted from his works.
In the original Candyman, based on Barker’s short story The Forbidden, Tony Todd played Civil War-area black slave who was tortured and murdered after his affair with white woman was discovered. His death sparked an urban legend that saving “Candyman” five times while looking in the mirror would summon him and he would then kill the summoner (talk about ungrateful!).
So, how they plan to replace the black slave character with a white character is not only a mysterious, but completely ridiculous.
I have to be honest, THIS story in particular almost sounds fake to me. Sony is sorta sitting around thinking about it, but they’re not sure and thinking of maybe inserting a white dude into Tony Todd’s one proud moment. If you all recall, they even spoke of re-making Pet Sematary only a decade or so after it first came out and that thankfully (so far) never happened.
Of course I would not be even the slightest bit shocked to see a press release for:
CANDYMAN: Honeycomb Nightmare
Starring Channing Tatum and Miley Cyrus in her first “big girl” role
Tagline: Willy Wonka Ain’t Got Nuttin’ On Me
Rated PG-13
Either way, there’s talking happening. We’re with you Tony Todd. We’re with you.
You just about bowled me over with that last bit. ^_^
Sadly, yeah… this sounds like a dumb move. I hope it’s false.
Making “Candyman” white would simply turn this into a Bloody Mary story with a man instead of a woman. Plus if Harvey Dent can be black, pretty much anything goes as far as race is concerned.
As far as “Tony Todd’s one proud moment”, I’d put his role of Ben in the 1990 NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD toward the top of the list.
Still, lets just hope this is all merely rumor…
In the original story, set in england, he is white. the bonfire is in fact for guy fawkes day (a roman catholic who plotted against protestants).
If you were observant enough to read the original short story (the forbidden) you’d see that that featured a White figure. The black undertones and bloody mary references were added for the film. Therefore a film closer to the story would be completely different from the Candyman movie. Not to downplay the movie, i enjoyed it alot.