‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Cult Classic Remake Planned by MTVGender-bender remake will air on popular music/reality network
By Matthew B. Zeidman
HOLLYWOOD, CA (RUSHPRNEWS) 7/28/08 – Did you ever dress like Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Eddie or Janet and yell funny lines (to you, anyway) at a midnight screening of “Rocky Horror Picture Show?” Well, tens of thousands did. Every weekend, in towns across America and around the world.In a move that will either delight or appall its notoriously dedicated fanbase, MTV has decided to redo the 1975 cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” as a made-for-TV film spanning two hours, Variety reported Wednesday. The same gender-bending screenplay, co-written by original cast member Richard O’Brien, will be used, though a little wiggle room will be allowed for added musical numbers.
The first movie, initially a financial flop, has aired continuously in movie theaters around the world since its initial release, earning nearly $140 million and attracting scores of costumed and vocal enthusiasts to special midnight screenings, where amateur performers often mimic the onscreen action and audience props are abundant.
Based on the stage musical of the same name, the 23-year-old motion picture followed two straight-laced fiancés, Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, as they became stranded at a remote gothic castle and were taken prisoner and subjected to sexual debauchery by the building’s inhabitants: a transsexual alien bent on world domination, his bevy of twisted servants and his genetically engineered, muscle-bound sex slave. It starred Barry Bostwick, Tim Curry, Meatloaf and Susan Sarandon.
There hasn’t been any word as to the newer feature’s casting (or release date), though the movie’s subject material makes it unlikely the usual set of stars familiar to the youth-oriented cable network’s primary viewers (e.g., Zac Efron or Ashley Tisdale) would be considered.
MTV has already been doling out a bit of milder sexual decadence this summer, by frequently airing the music video for Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” a song about a highly charged experimental kiss between two women.
NEWS SOURCE HOLLYWOOD TODAY