Looking Forward to the Date with an Angel Remake

By Miscellaneous | Miscellaneous | December 10, 2009 |

By Miscellaneous | Miscellaneous | December 10, 2009 |

If angels are indeed the new vampires, as Dustin commented on earlier, then we’ve got something to look forward to: more remakes! Okay, that doesn’t sound so good, and honestly we don’t need another go at The Bishop’s Wife, Angels in the Outfield or Wings of Desire, all of which were terribly redone in the ’90s. But there is one film in particular that will perfectly fit with the whole teeny bopper demographic and be a welcome rehash.

I’m talking about Date with an Angel, which proved writer-director Tom McLoughlin was capable of making an even worse movie than Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Basically a rip-off of Splash with a hot angel instead of a hot mermaid, Date with an Angel stars soap actor Michael E. Knight, French actress Emmanuelle Beart and Phoebe Cates, who looks as bad here as she looks good in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (she is pretty funny in her role, though). If you want to see what way too much dry ice and light can do to extremely cheap-looking set pieces, the whole thing’s available on YouTube; here’s the first part.

I don’t know who owns the rights to the thing (Anchor Bay?), but someone needs to snatch them up and remake Date with an Angel, because it’s not a bad idea, just a poor execution of a decent concept. Lower the ages of the characters to put them in high school, keep the love triangle and you’ve got an easy Twilight-like hit. While that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be good, it can’t really be worse than the original. It wouldn’t take much, though, to turn it into a relatively smart religious satire, on par with Saved. Like that movie, it could even be subtle enough to appeal to the very people it’s making fun of.

Okay, Hollywood, I hope that’s enough of a jumping off point for you. Now get on it!

Meanwhile, here’s what some other blogs think about angels being the new it creatures:

• S.T. VanAirsdale at Movieline:
  

  Another day, another series of pseudo-goth young-adult fantasy novels is optioned in hopes of a franchise. This time it’s Fallen, a four-book collection that eschews vampires and werewolves in favor of the next big, swoony thing: Angels. Oh, God, indeed.

• Monika Bartyzel at Cinematical:
  

  In that case, what’s next? It looks like YA writers are looking for any sort of supernatural, super-power, immortal beings to thrust into the world of tumultuous teen female yearnings. Mermen? Zombies? Aliens? Soothsayers? Astral Projections? Monks? Immortal Ninjas?

• Ethan Anderton at FirstShowing.net:
  

  Normally I would complain about fangirls finding a different kind of story to latch onto (of course this hasn’t garnered the following that Twilight has just yet), but with all the similarities and formulaic stories in fanboy favorite comic book adaptations, that would be the pot calling the kettle black for sure.

• Lane Brown at Vulture:
  

  Loving Angels Instead (of Vampires): Disney has snapped up the film rights to Lauren Kate’s YA novel Fallen. The four-book series, all covered under the deal, involves a love triangle whose three points are a girl and a pair of fallen angels who’ve been fighting over her for a hundred years. “Twilight comparisons are inevitable,” says HR, probably because this sounds exactly like Twilight. The publishing industry is convinced that angels are the next vampires, and Disney throwing money at this thing certainly won’t change its mind.

• Vince Mancini at FilmDrunk:
  

  If vampires are abstinent and virtuous and sparkling white now, it only follows that angels have to be the bad boys.  In Twilight, they can’t do it because the vampire will hurt her.  It’d really balance things out if in another popular book the angel is constantly pressuring his girlfriend into sex and that’s the only way they connect.  C’mon, babe, you’d do it if you really loved me.  Don’t you want to feel like a woman?  I talked to God last week and he says you’re being a total prude about this.