Why remakes are ruining Hollywood

Patrick GOLDSTEIN asks why Hollywood is remaking so many films and turning to television for storylines [“Original Concept? Sorry, We’ll Pass,” June 28]. The answer is very simple. Hollywood has become a closed shop where so much money can be made for doing so little that interlopers of any stripe are routinely shut out. Hollywood isn’t about creativity, imagination and originality; it is about greed.

A.J. Buttacavoli

Oakland

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Wanted! Production chief at Disney who knows enough about film to be able to -- at a minimum -- identify the original filmmakers of remakes to be greenlighted.

As a Disney stockholder, I am appalled that Nina Jacobson, who apparently thinks it’s just fine to spend big money on remakes of movies she loved as a child, knows so little about the original films she remakes. Excuse me, I don’t work in the industry but I can tell you that Elia Kazan directed and William Inge wrote “Splendor in the Grass,” a film that I loved as a child.

I could go on, but why bother? With clueless powerhouses like this in charge, I’m sure Goldstein will have many more opportunities to expose the greed, stupidity and shallowness of studio bigwigs.

Tom Mannarino

Lake Elsinore

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When I was a kid growing up in L.A. in the ‘70s, I couldn’t wait to crack open the Calendar section every Sunday to check out the ads for all of the upcoming movies. It was exhilarating. But for the last few years, I, like everybody else, have stopped going to the movies. There’s nothing Hollywood is doing that is of any interest to me or anybody I know, regardless of age.

I hope the studios fix their movies soon. The solution is: 86 the head-splitting computer-generated effects, bring back actors over 25 and make some good stories about “real” people. Folks will be back at the theaters in droves.

Charles Zigman

Studio City