The Velvet Light Trap

Perkins, Claire.
Remaking and the Film Trilogy: Whit Stillman's Authorial Triptych
The Velvet Light Trap - Number 61, Spring 2008, pp. 14-25

University of Texas Press

Claire Perkins - Remaking and the Film Trilogy: Whit Stillman's Authorial Triptych - The Velvet Light Trap 61 The Velvet Light Trap 61 (2008) 14-25 MUSE Search Journals This Journal Contents Remaking and the Film Trilogy: Whit Stillman's Authorial Triptych Claire Perkins The trailer for the 2006 Melbourne International Film Festival features a scruffy, bespectacled teenager sandwiched between two suited Hollywood executive types in the back of a limousine. As the car moves through a neon-lit streetscape, the execs use a nonquestion initially directed at the kid--"Okay, so your script is a sequel, right?"--to launch into a breathless exchange concerning the relative economic benefits of sequels, prequels, and postsequel prequels before deciding between themselves that a sequel remake (which they term a "sequel-sequel") is the way to go with this project and turning again to the kid to ask him how much he wants for the trilogy or, better, the tetralogy, reassuring themselves and him that "he can stretch . . . he'll stretch . . . we'll stretch it . . . yeah, yeah." The scene fades to black over their final mumblings, and the tagline for MIFF 2006 comes up: "It's a long way from Hollywood." This trailer raises a number of pertinent issues relating to the field of film remakes and sequels. First, and most obviously, it gestures toward the actual ubiquity of sequels, prequels, and remakes in Hollywood right down to the parodied categories of "quadrilogies"...