Will Smith and Kevin Hart will Star in a Remake of 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles'

Source - EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures has set a remake of the classic John Hughes 1987 road trip comedy Planes, Trains & Automobiles as a star vehicle for Will Smith and Kevin Hart. Hart’s Hartbeat Productions and Smith’s Westbrook Studios will produce. In her feature debut, Aeysha Carr will write the script. Her TV credits include Brooklyn 99 and the upcoming Hulu series Woke. 

Here's the part where your pal Jer - your OK Boomer - is supposed to drop to my knees, shake my fist at the sky and scream about the sacrilege of this. Pierce the clouds with my anguished scream of righteous indignation and ask if nothing is sacred in Hollywood any more. 

But I won't. I don't have the fight in me. Hollywood broke me once and for all, about 150 remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, reimaginings and Disney properties given the live action version of their former animated selves ago. The movie industry is just that. An industry. They're not about hopes and dreams and making magic and holding up a mirror the human condition and transporting us to the world of pure imagination or any of that bullshit they spew at the Oscars when they're introducing the nominees for Best Costume Design or whatever. They manufacture a product. They package it, market it and try to sell it. Nothing else. Hard stop.

Some committee at Paramount greenlit this because Will Smith and Kevin Hart are funny and popular, and "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" is a well-known intellectual property, period. In a perfect world, I'd rather somebody just hand some original script to Smith and Hart and let them do that. Something they can sink their acting chops into and make their own instead of a pale imitation of John Hughes' inspiration from 35 years ago. But in case you haven't been paying attention at any point in your existence, the world is far from being anywhere close to a million light years from perfection. 

Somewhere out there are artists with unique visions of stories that have never been told that would entertain the masses for generations. But those screenplays will gather dust until the end of time because there are executives in a board room saying "You know what movie my kids love? 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles.' Who can we get to redo that?" And another recycled vision is born. It's show business. 

So no, Paramount will not move my needle on this one. I'm not going to decry how they're ruining a beloved classic that no one ever wanted to be touched or altered in anyway. They'll get no such satisfaction from me. As far as I'm concerned, the studio couldn't alter the classic status of the original if they did 12 direct-to-video sequels like it was "American Pie" or something. I'll have Neal Page and Del Griffith til I die.