Tim Curry to return to new ROCKY HORROR remake

It really isn’t a secret what I think about remakes. I am bored of them. I am tired of the reuse of old IP’s that are better left to the annals of time and the nostalgia they bring when thinking about them. I recently moaned about the planned remake of Jumanji, a movie that has a lot of love from children turned adults and doesn’t need a reimagining. Well, what the hell do I know?! It would seem nothing is sacred… nothing!

I heard about the remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show last year and that it would star Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox as the titular and iconic Frank-N-Furter… Yes, that would be a transgender actor… playing the original role that a man played who was acting as a transvestite. I need to lie down now.

I was just going to pretend it wasn’t happening. I’m not closed to change, I mean I went and watched the theater production twice when it was recently in Cape Town and accepted the changes because it was for a live audience – theater is after all very different to replicating a movie. So I decided I was going to ignore this new Fox production.

Well now that seems unlikely as one of my favourite actors Tim Curry – yes THE Tim Curry – will be returning to the show as the criminologist narrator originally played by Charles Grey. Damn you universe!

Fox announced this bombshell at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour and now I have to watch the two-hour television musical, just for Curry, and possibly to swear at the show. I find it interesting as Curry has always shied away from even talking about his role as the alien transvestite, seeming to nearly regret it. Indeed some of his co-stars appeared in the 2010 Glee version (vomits) and he refused to join them. Once he was even asked if there would be a sequel to the 1975 movie and his answer was ‘Not with me in it’. And who can blame him. The role was such a huge hit that he feared typecasting himself as an actor. Sill, he seems to have moved on and is excited about the musical re-invention saying:

I am very happy and excited to be a part of this new event.

Well I am too if you are, I think. And apparently the new lead is very happy with his joining. Speaking to zap2it at the same press tour after a panel on Orange is the New Black Laverne Cox said:

I knew they were interested in bringing him on, potentially as narrator, but I didn’t know if it would happen or not. I just cried when I found out. When I fell in love with Rocky Horror Picture Show in college, it was Tim Curry’s portrayal of Dr. Frank-N-Furter that was so moving for me.

I still think this is something that shouldn’t be attempted, something that is only being done for the sake of being done. The original movie was a hit because it pushed conservative boundaries at the time. Now with ‘movie’ adaptations of books like 50 Shades of Nay Grey it seems rather weak (even the theater production tried spicing things up to get a shock out of the audience and all it got was childish giggles – not ONE person stood up and damned the cast to eternal hell, not even a sermon, nudda).

Curry will be joining Adam Lambert as Eddie and Victoria Justice and Ryan McCartan as Janet and Brad. Oh Sarandon, you were my first… Crush.

So what do you think? Will you be watching this when it comes out or do you want to keep those awesome memories of the original alive?

Last Updated: January 19, 2016