Poseidon remake director brands original 'over-acted'
The Poseidon Adventure is ranked as an all-time classic – but the director of the remake has called the 1972 original “terribly over-acted”.
Gene Hackman won a best actor Bafta for his role as Rev Frank Scott in the original movie, while screen legend Shelley Winters bagged a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role as heroine Belle Rosen.
More than 30 years after it was made, the film, in which passengers try to find their way out of a stricken cruise liner after it turns upside down on New Year’s Eve, still comes top of disaster movie polls.
The new 150 million film, Poseidon, which stars Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss, and Emmy Rossum, has had a cool response from critics.
Wolfgang Peterson, director of the new film, told a press conference today: “I don’t want to make fun of this movie (the original).
“I love this movie. It was fun when I saw it the first time, but if I might say so it’s a bit outdated now.”
The German director, whose credits include Troy and The Perfect Storm, added that it was “terribly over-acted”.
Peterson, 65, said his film was “not really a remake” and was not in the same “campish, Hollywood style” as the original.
Hollywood actor Russell, 55, who plays Robert Ramsey, added: “They are two different movies, one is a camp classic the other is non-stop suspense.”
Dreyfuss, 58, (Richard Nelson) added that the original was “not really a great film, but a great idea, which managed to remain on cable, like most of our careers.”
