Stars React to 'Manchurian' Remake
July 30, 2004 -- A cynic might just ask who's being cast in the Al Pacino part for The Godfather remake rather than speculate the reasons behind remaking The Manchurian Candidate.
Of course, there were many version of The Lord of the Rings before Peter Jackson's breakthrough trilogy. Remake does not mean necessarily mean sellout, even if that's often the case.
"People ask me that all the time, 'How could I allow this movie to be redone?' That's the easiest question in the world," says Tina Sinatra, one of the films producers. "I own the rights."
Frank Sinatra starred in the 1962 film as a Korean War soldier, captured and secretly brainwashed by Communist agents, then sent home, along with other POWs, as part of a plot to install a lethal pawn in the White House.
A year after the film's release, John F. Kennedy was shot dead, and the Manchurian Candidate's portrayal of a brainwashed presidential assassin resonated throughout America, especially among conspiracy theorists.
Sinatra, a friend of Kennedy's, took the film out of circulation for 25 years, even though it was an instant classic, earning an Oscar nomination for Angela Lansbury.
"The country was too raw at the time," says Sinatra, recalling that her father was good friends with the slain president.
The Manchurian Candidate finally returned to video in 1987, and was celebrated once again as a Cold War classic. In the years before his death, Frank Sinatra talked about updated the script, originally based on Richard Condon's bestseller.
Now, in the new version, there's a new villain and this one doesn't have a foreign accent. "I thought from the very beginning, it had to be us, not a foreign enemy," says Sinatra, "That's what's truly creepy."
Indeed, in this version, Gulf War veterans are brainwashed by a multinational company called Manchurian Global. They return to the United States, where Denzel Washington, as the commanding officer, recommends one of his men, played by Liev Schreiber, for the Congressional Medal of Honor, a steppingstone for his political career that will put big business in complete control of the country.
Related Stories
ABC News Live