‘Goonies’ TV Series Will Follow Kids Creating A Shot-For-Shot Remake Of The ’80s Adventure Film
By Chris Evangelista/Feb. 13, 2020 10:30 am EST
Look, I know lots of people my age love The Goonies. I’m not one of them. I sort of enjoyed the film when I was a kid, but have you watched this thing recently? Folks, it does not hold up. Sure, it has some fun Amblin-style thrills, but it’s also kind of annoying. Richard Donner is a talented filmmaker, but he apparently had no idea how to direct children. As a result, The Goonies is just wall-to-wall scenes of these kid actors shouting over each other, to the point where it gets exhausting. But hey! Folks still love The Goonies, and now a new TV series wants to cash-in on that nostalgic fondness.
This isn’t based on a true story, but there is some precedent in reality. The documentary Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made tells the tale of three childhood friends who spent about 25 years making a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I can’t help but think that someone saw that idea and thought: “We should do something like that, but how can we get around buying the rights to the story from these guys?” The solution: remaking a different Steven Spielberg-related film.
After failing to make it in New York and carrying a heavy secret with her, Stella Cooper returns to her distressed automotive hometown to substitute teach. She finds inspiration, hope and ultimately salvation when she agrees to help three students who are pursuing their filmmaking dreams by putting on an impossibly ambitious shot-for-shot remake of one of their favorite movies —The Goonies. Over the course of the season of the potential series, their passion will inspire a town in desperate need of hope in this love letter to the power of cinema, storytelling and dreams.
I don’t want to be too harsh here, since the show hasn’t even started filming yet. For all I know, it’ll turn out to be pretty charming! But my knee-jerk reaction is to groan inwardly at our never-ending reliance on nostalgia. Can’t we start creating new stuff instead? And then maybe one day that new stuff can be heralded as a classic? Just a thought.
