Whale War: Encore Offers A Cable TV Film Based On Herman Melville's Classic Novel, 'Moby Dick'

Linda Stasi at the New York Post wrote about Encore's new cable film, Moby Dick.

In 1956, John Huston turned "Moby Dick," one of the greatest American novels ever written, into possibly the greatest philosophical action-adventure movie ever filmed.

So it was with great trepidation that I popped in the advance screener for Encore's first original movie, an adaptation of "Moby Dick," starring William Hurt as Captain Ahab.

 With over 30 million subscribers, Encore doesn't have to go into the original movie business. But hey -- everyone wants to be a producer.

 Why, oh why, anyone remakes perfection I don't know, but they always do. I wish they'd remake movies that should have been great but were dogs, like "The Bonfire of the Vanities" and "The Great Gatsby." 

You can read the rest of Linda Stasi's column via the below link:

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/whale_war_d6o67Yt2tgvT5g0gkZMjHI  

I loved John Huston's Moby Dick, as I loved Melville's novel, but I'll watch the new version when it airs.

John Huston himself once remarked that film makers should remake failures, not successful films. He remade The Maltese Falcon after two unsuccessful films were made about Dashiell Hammett's great crime novel.

Huston's Maltese Falcon is considered to be a classic.

Remakes, even bad remakes, often sends intelligent viewers back to the original film and the original source, the novel. The remakes also send young viewers who may not have seen the original film or read the novel, to view the original film and to read the novel.

And that is a good thing, I believe.