”Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” Is May be Remade....in 3D!?!

[Brian Damage]

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/...d-alice-in-3d/

It came in no surprise in early 2010 when 3-D fervor started to seep into the creative imaginations that toe the line between film and pornography. Gaspar Noe wanted to elongate the erotic sex scenes he's known for and make a film that reveals the joys of sex with the help of the third dimension. Not to be upstaged, Tinto Brass decided that he would be the one to bring sex to the third dimension. Obviously he didn't see 'The Stewardesses.' And just in case that wasn't enough X-rated, three-dimensional glory, August brought word that Hong Kong was cooking up 3-D zen porn, and that Hustler was looking to make an 'Avatar' porn (with Japanese-style tentacle sex re-envisioned with ponytails?).

But forget all that. How about a 3-D orgy courtesy of 'The Other Woman' filmmaker and multiple Oscar nominee Paul Mazursky?


The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy talked with the director about his work and current plans, which included a brief chat about Mazursky's first film, 'Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice,' which Hollywood wants to remake.

Nestled after his co-starring gig in 'I Spy' alongside Bill Cosby, and well before the likes of 'The Greatest American Hero' and 'Everybody Loves Raymond,' the late Robert Culp starred as a documentarian researching a new project. He and his wife Carol (Natalie Wood) attend a sexy group therapy session, which thrusts them into a '60s state of mind where everyone should feel rather than think. While trying to get their best friends (Elliot Gould as Ted and Dyan Cannon as Alice) on the same wavelength, hidden passions emerge, boundaries are pushed and only one remains ... looking at the above photo, you can guess what it is.

Fast-forward some forty-plus years, and while discussing the current state of Hollywood, Mazursky said:

"The whole business has changed into I would say more garbage; some of it makes a lot of money and some doesn't. But they still make a lot of good movies, too. They want to remake 'Bob and Carol,' and I said, if you give me a lot of money upfront and you do the orgy in 3-D, I'd be interested. It happened twice by the studios. Several years ago, they were talking about Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, and another couple, but they broke up, so who knows who now?"

Yes, it was said in jest, likely to mimic the absurdity, or potential craptacularness of a remake starring Brad and Jen. We shudder to imagine how that would've played out ... very likely nothing like the four-Oscar-nominated success of the original. Nevertheless, it would've been great to see what could have happened if the studios called Mazursky's bluff. Would he have taken it on and made Tinto Brass grumble over yet another person honing in on his 3-D dreams? Or perhaps he simply would have made a fun and carefully cut 3-D movie that tries to expand James Cameron's vision to straight-forward comedy?

3-D jest aside, Movieline brings up a good point that in this world where remakes and reboots happen left, right and center, it would be great to see a filmmaker revisit his own work. Rather than a shot-by-shot redo of 'Psycho,' or a sequel decades after the fact, Hollywood should entertain the idea of directors revisiting successful films from their past. How would it change now in Mazursky's eyes, and how would it fare in the quite dumbed down landscape of mainstream comedy?

And that's it, really. You know Hollywood has to cure their mainstream nervousness when anti-3-D and anti-remake opinions fizzle at the thought of Paul Mazursky directing 3-D orgies ... just to get some smarter comedic fare back into the spotlight.