You remember Christopher Nolan’s mainstream debut right? An indie puzzler that played with chronology and trust? Took a while to get traction, but became successful? Someone clearly feels that we’ve gone far too long without a remake of Nolan’s Memento.
The 2000 film, which starred Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano in the story of the amnesiac Leonard trying to uncover a dark secret about the murder of his wife, gained plenty of attention for its fascinating construction, blending black and white footage that plays chronologically and colour scenes shown in reverse order.
This apparent new version is coming about because AMBI Pictures nabbed the rights recently and has decided that 15 years is long enough for a film to enjoy classic status without being remade. “Memento has been consistently ranked as one of the best films of its decade,” says AMBI Pictures’ Andrea Iervolino. “People who’ve seen Memento 10 times still feel they need to see it one more time. This is a quality that we feel really supports and justifies a remake. The bar is set high thanks to the brilliance or Christopher Nolan, but we wouldn’t want it any other way.” Wouldn't a re-release just help emphasise the quality instead?
While not all remakes are an equally bad idea, this – especially without Nolan's involvement – seems particularly unnecessary, and represents a huge hill to climb for any future filmmaker. Meanwhile, we can just picture the legions headed to tattoo parlours to have the words, “this do don’t please” inked on their bodies.