MGM remaking ‘Dressed to Kill’
Studio pacts with Hyde Park on DVD movies
By DAVE MCNARY, PETER GILSTRAPMGM is partnering with Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment to produce direct-to-DVD movies aimed at specific demos.
First project from the alliance will be a remake of the 1980 thriller “Dressed to Kill,” with Rick Alexander signed to write the script.
Hyde Park’s Patrick Aiello initiated the remake project and will head the banner’s new consumer direct division, working closely with MGM’s recently installed home entertainment VP Jason Weiss, who will oversee the production.
The original pic was released by Filmways, which was later acquired by Orion and ultimately by MGM. Brian De Palma wrote and directed, with Angie Dickinson, Dennis Franz, Nancy Allen and Michael Caine starring.
Alexander recently scripted the sci-fi thriller “Subatomic” for the two companies, and is producing a remake of “Conan the Barbarian” for Warner Bros.
MGM is planning to release 12 or more DVD projects per year, primarily based on popular film and TV franchises. Hyde Park recently wrapped “Asylum,” is in post- production on James Wan’s “Death Sentence” for Fox and has a five-year co-financing agreement with Fox, which is also the exclusive distrib for MGM’s consumer-direct projects.
So this unit will make DTV movies that will either be terrible remakes or terrible in-name-only sequels to franchises! It’s like they combined the two most obnoxious Hollywood trends into one simple package of evil. Well, some of their crap will probably end up here eventually, so it is nice to have advanced warning like this.
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