This Is What Chloe Moretz-Grace Looks Like Covered In Blood In CARRIE

I'm slightly optimistic about the remake of Carrie. Brian De Palma's film is perfect, and needs no remake. It's just as potent today as it was in 1976. That said, having Boys Don't Cry director Kimberly Peirce tackle it is interesting, as bringing a female point of view to this story - previously only told by men - feels worthy. Here's a reason to tackle this again. And Julianne Moore as Carrie's mom should be great.

The rest of it? I don't know. Chloe Grace-Moretz feels like the wrong choice. Yeah, Sissy Spacek is beautiful, but in a strange way. Moretz looks traditional. This remake needed a new Heather Matarazzo in the lead, or at the very least someone with a truly unique beauty, a new Lily Cole. 

At least Moretz looks good covered in blood, I guess. But should she? I mean, look at Sissy Spacek in what is probably about the same moment (although Moretz is outside - not sure if they're changing where Carrie gets the bucket of blood dumped on her):

She's otherworldly. Moretz doesn't have that.

I'm okay with remakes when they make a case for existing. I think Carrie makes sense, not just for the Peirce thing but also because it's a well-known property. People know what it is. Not many other remakes have that element. Nobody knows what the fuck Videodrome is, so why remake it? The answer is simple:

Fear and laziness.

See, when an executive greenlights a remake, he's covering his ass. The argument is that this is a known property and that leaning on a known property is a smart move. It has a built-in audience, they'll say. It has name recognition. When it fails (and many of them have been failing. See Total Recall) the executive is more secure, having made what looked like a smart decision at the time. If the executive had greenlit something original that failed, they would take the fall. With the remake, blame the property or marketing or the director - the studio guys step between the raindrops.

Sorry if you already read me going over this on Twitter yesterday, but I think it's important to realize. Hollywood is not part of the reality-based community. Image is key here, and that's why even as remakes don't perform they keep getting greenlit.