“Fortuna is Soylent Green!” + Monaghan and Rodriguez join Futuristic Sci-fi Thriller
I am not opposed to remakes but when Hollywood makes a movie that is exactly like another movie not dubbing it a remake or redux or a re-adaptation then it pisses me off. Take Eagle Eye for example, that movie was a rip-off of I-Robot, Minority Report and Enemy of the State.
Now that is an OK analogy so here is a better one - Ghost Town is a complete re-make of Robert Downey’s Heart and Souls, I do not care how you slice it, there is some differences here but ultimately it is the same movie.
So now here is the latest “non-remake” to come out of Hollywood, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Fortuna, is the story is set in 2100, and envisions an Earth where a collapsed economy and climate crises have eliminated the middle class, leaving a few very wealthy and the teeming masses in severe poverty. To give hope and avoid revolt, the elite create Fortuna, a mysterious game where one in a thousand wins a big payday and joins the upper classes. But their hidden goal to “reduce poverty” by 30% over 50 years comes with a deadly price tag.
Now here is the 1970 Soylent Green synopsis,you have an overpopulated Earth due with greenhouse effects causing the Earth to reach high temperatures. You have significant separation between the rich and the poor with the rich living in luxury apartments. The main character stumbles on a conspiracy during a murder investigation leading into a world of mystery and ultimately a truth that you wouldn’t believe.
Now there is a significant difference between the two plots but ultimately they are the same movie. The key phrase is these are both dystopian sc-fi films exploring the same thing. So in the words of my friend Adam, “Fortuna is Soylent Green!” or rather “Soylent Green is Fortuna! not people!”
Anyway the current cast consists of Monaghan, Rodriguez and Grossmann, who will play desperate men who play the game in a nearby tower, despite apprehensions that none of its contestants are ever seen again.
So the point of this rant is Hollywood needs to get creative, If I want to watch Soylent Green again I’ll put in the DVD, not pay 10 bucks to see it in theaters sugar coded with new special effects, up-to-date technology, new young “pretty” actors and mediocre storytelling.
