Should the Last Starfighter Be Remade?

We all remember movies we’ve seen throughout our lives that we were amazed weren’t hits. When The Last Starfighter came out in 1984, there were big expectations for it, because it was a groundbreaking special effects film, using more CGI than even Tron.

The Last Starfighter certainly didn’t live up to expectations, although it enjoys a healthy cult following today. Now Screen Rant tells us that Gary Whitta wants to, surprise, remake the film. Whitta is currently writing the stand-alone Star Wars movie, which should be hitting theaters some time next year.

As this article was being finalized, we stumbled upon a story on Slash Film that tells us that Seth Rogen wanted to remake Starfighter at one point, and even Spielberg couldn’t get it happening. Rogen tweeted, “Spielberg himself told me he couldn’t get the rights after I told him how long I’d tried.”

This report tells us the screenwriter of Starfighter, Jonathan R. Betuel, has the rights, and won’t give them up. Is he insane? This is a beloved geek classic, and a reboot could bring a lot of people back to the original. (Not to mention a remake with Rogen could be a lot of fun.) So in the meantime, go back and check out the 1984 original, which had some pretty remarkable computer animation for the time.