Does She’s All That Need A Remake?

By Jeanne Sutton
09th Apr 2015

We woke up this morning to the slightly meh news that Y2K classic teen movie She’s All That is allegedly getting a remake. It’s been 16 years since arty outcast Laney Boggs (played by Rachel Leigh Cook) and thoughtful jock Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze Jr.) found love amid high-school politics and a thinly veiled reworking of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion.

It’s a pretty great film. Paul Walker is the very tanned villain. Rachel Leigh Cook worked a great bob. The supposedly drab heroine takes off her glasses and suddenly deemed a fox. There’s a synchronized dance number at the prom. The love story is even believable. Maybe. They’re both essentially good people with an interest in the arts. We may have left a house party early a few months ago to watch the movie on Netflix while live-messaging our very perplexed significant other.

However, we have to admit the thought of a reimagining leaves us a little bit disappointed. Remaking a perfectly fine and wonderfully dated movie just smacks of unoriginality. Teen movies should be a battleground of rebellion and risks. Look at the black humour of Heathers. While 10 Things I Hate About You is based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, it does inject some diversions like paint-balling and teen pregnancy scaremongering into the fold. At least Twilight was wholly original – that’s one way to describe a chastity fable about an immortal glittering man not draining his teen lover of blood.

Freddie Prinze Jr. didn’t hold back when it came to his thoughts about the news, throwing some shade on Twitter.

@lanniesmiles tough for writers with original scripts
? Freddie Prinze Jr (@RealFPJr) April 8, 2015

However, there is one major positive to this possible endeavour. Jezebel reports that Tonya Lewis Lee, wife of Spike, is attached to direct the project and that the casting is aiming for diverse leads. In a world of whitewashed stories on screen, it’s about time Hollywood started casting movies the way showrunner Shonda Rhimes casts her hit shows Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy ? reflective of real multi-cultural life.

Now, let’s take some time to watch one of our favourite cheesiest moments of the film. *blesses self*

Jezebel