Another year, more bad sequels.

10,000 -- that's the number of original scripts that are written in Hollywood every single year. You wouldn't know it, based on the number of book and toy adaptations, and sequels reaching in the 4's and 5's bombarding us every year. Sure, some just beg for a sequel and a few actually deserve one, but we wouldn't spontaneously combust if we didn't get one. The world wouldn't end. The studios, though, wouldn't get as rich, and they'd be spared the horror of having to take actual risks.

It's truly shameful, and writers aren't the only ones complaining even though we're the ones suffering the most. Actors are sick of playing the same character three or four years in a row and are thrilled to get away from these franchise films, and who can blame them? Sure, it's practically free work for as long as they are willing to suck it up and be bored for a while...wait, what the hell are they whining about anyway?

Directors too, it's not like the studios phobia of all things new costs them anything. Sequels still need directors.

Every day I wake up I hope not to see any news about another sequel being rushed into development, and every day that's exactly what I find. It doesn't matter if the original material was good or bad, blockbuster or bomb. If the idea has been tried, it must be safe to try again.

So over the weekend came news that a remake of Westworld is in the works by a guy who has 1 moderately decently script to his name and 7 others that I've never heard of, and has probably never seen the original. (Neither have I, but I'm not talking about remaking it because the idea sounds cute.)

Lorenzo di Bonaventura is trying to push another Beverly Hills Cop into production, as if the third film wasn't enough to revoke this guys film making rights for all time. I can't for the life of my figure out why.

Bonaventura had nothing to do with the first two successful films and made the third one bomb. Either he sucks, or the idea was mined out. Or both. Who cares which? There's just no reason to go back there. Even if it were moderately successful, it won't ever be as big as the first film was, because it's not new anymore. There's zero chance the writer from the first film will be back for this one, studios and directors use them like lenses on a camera, interchangeable and in most cases disposable.

In most cases one would think that with a random writer, and probably not a good one, chances are about even that it'll do as well as an original screenplay, only that's not the case, because we already know that either Bonaventura can't hold his own or that the franchise is played out. Either way, both of these films have odds weighing against them.

I hope Murphy stays far away from this and just keeps working on original material. The public, or at least speaking for myself, is getting increasingly sick of this bull.

Topics: Film, Beverly Hills Cop, Westworld, Eddie Murphy, Lorenzo di Bonaventura