Toughts of Red Dawn

A few weeks ago I had a chance to speak with Red Dawn Producer, Tripp Vinson (Choke, Journey to the Center of the Earth).

First of all, what a cool guy. I had a great time talking with him about Red Dawn. Secondly, he likes the site. For all those people hearing rumors of ContraFilms and/or MGM suing the site, it is 100% not true. This site has been and always will be in support of the film and hopefully will be able to do more down the road. Read more for the rest of the story.

Now as far as Red Dawn goes, I wasn’t able to get into any really deep details but I was able to get a better idea of the direction this film is going. All of the filmmakers love and have a lot of respect for the original movie. This seems to be one of the reasons why they wanted to do a remake. (Imitation is the best form of flattering) They are shooting a movie that they think the fans of the original expect. At the same time they’re making a new film that will fit in with today’s tech and world politics. 2010 is a much different world than 1984 and this film will reflect that.

For all of those (especially in the forums) that worry about the scenario of the U.S. invasion, a lot of research went into this. They spoke to military experts and the RAND Corp. to figure out what countries would be involved in this invasion. The RAND Corp. is a nonprofit “think tank” that runs military simulations and war games for the government. (Go here for more info on the RAND Corporation.) Research also went into the invaders uniforms and weapons. (To be fair, I don't think most movie goers even care about these details.) Not going to get into this here because there have been lots of this discussion in our forums in regards to this topic.

We also talked about what kind of film the original Red Dawn is. A big part of the premise is fantasy. Even if you look at the original movie, in 1984, in the middle of the Cold War, the movie was a fantasy. The U.S. was never invaded by Russian and Cubans and even thought that fear was there, how much of a possibility was it then? The details of the invasion were not the focus of the original film, the response to the invasion was. This is how I feel about the remake. I’ve never really cared too much about the details of the invasion. I want to see some regular people kicking some major ass. People loved the original because they loved that feeling that got when they saw their hometown being invaded and seeing regular people, like themselves, step up and take action. This seems to be their primary goal with the new Red Dawn, to recreate that visceral feeling and joy of becoming a soldier to protect your home and family.

The scope of this film will also be much larger than the original with more intense action. From the pictures we’ve seen, this film is much more urban than the original, too. This should help make it feel like it could be your hometown and Detroit is a great city to fulfill this roll. If the Bourne movies are any indication of the action in Red Dawn, I’m really looking forward to seeing this film.

Hopefully, down the road, I'll be able to get some more details and maybe even get some of your questions answered. Just thought I'd share this for now.