"The Gambler" '74 Blu-ray speculation & remake talk

[thompsonjohn]

Well, we all know one thing about remakes is that there is usually a revival of the original. Yet, still we haven't heard anything (atleast to my knowledge) about a blu-ray release. Maybe Paramount is waiting to see how the remake does at the box office? I hope it does good, love the cast, and Mark Wahlberg's last couple of pictures have been money machines, just look at the numbers Wikipedia is claiming:

"Pain & Gain" - Budget: $26mil/Box Office: $96,175,291
"2 Guns" - Budget: $61mil/Box Office: $131,940,411
"Lone Survivor" - Budget: $40mil/Box Office: $149.3 million
"Transformers 4" - Budget: $210mil/Box Office: $1,087,289,076

So, basically when it comes to "smaller" more character driven films Wahlberg does like "Pain & Gain" and now "The Gambler" remake, they tend to make a little less than when he does the action shoot 'em ups or franchise/sequel films. I guess best we can hope for is that this does atleast somewhere around the box office "Pain & Gain" did. Plus good box office would be great as a reason for Paramount to finally put the original on blu-ray.

Now, it's a shame Toback (who was most recently seen on HBO with Alec Baldwin in Toback's fascinating doc on getting a film financed at Cannes) isn't giving the remake his blessing, but that may be justified considering he's so close to the original material as it is partially based on his own life. Still, in the hands of Mark Wahlberg and Rupert Wyatt, who has to prove himself with this film, I mean he essentially did that already with "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", but that was only his second film, pure filmmaking skill or just luck?

Regardless, there is enough talent here to make Toback proud I mean he's got Wahlberg to play the James Caan role not to mention a supporting cast a lot of people would kill for in John Goodman, the beautiful Brie Larson, Michael K. Williams, Jessica Lange, and an 89 year old George Kennedy!

Back to the original blu-ray speculation. I hope this remake does decent money at the box office, this looks like Wahlberg is channeling his Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler character which should be a thrill to see. We can only hope they announce a blu-ray release after the weekend numbers are in (if they're good) or when they announce the blu-ray for the remake they will also announce the original and we'll get them both on the same release day.

Far as what I'd like to see on a blu-ray release would be a post-remake commentary track by Toback and a retrospective featuring Toback obviously, James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Burt Young, Lauren Hutton, M. Emmet Walsh and James Woods on how he got the role and what it was like being so young into his film career at the time. All that isn't going to happen, but we can wish. Hell, maybe the new cast and crew should do some kind of featurette on why they did the remake, how it came together, what they think of the original and what not. But really, just as long as they give it to us on blu-ray, even in a barebones state I'd still be happy as hell.

Such a great poster too ...