Blade Runner, True Grit, Reservoir Dogs…the number of famous movies which were remade years or decades later is almost endless. Now it looks like the most iconic biker movie of all – Easy Rider – is to join the remake list.

We’ve all watched Easy Rider, but just in case you missed it, it follows Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper on a journey through America’s Deep South on a pair of custom Harley-Davidsons. Released in July 1969, the film also starred Jack Nicholson and became an icon of counterculture, portraying a free-wheeling lifestyle to which many aspired. The bikes themselves became world famous, particularly Fonda’s ‘Captain America’ chopper.

Now Variety, doyen of the entertainment industry, reports that plans are already in place for a remake, with writers and directors currently being sourced. Apparently the new team aren’t interested in simply recreating the original, but setting it in the present day, and focusing on 21st century counterculture.

“Our goal is to build upon the counterculture and freedom narrative the original left us with,” said Maurice Fadida, one of the producers. “(We want to) give the youth of today a film that pays serious attention to their own countercultures and challenges. What the young viewers of today are experiencing in their everyday lives may seem crazy to older generations, but it can very well become the societal norm, as was the case with the cultural shift of the late 1960s.”

Of course, in the decades since Easy Rider was released at least one American biker rally has staged its own live action ‘remake’ of the film’s final sequence. In that version, Hopper and Fonda aren’t shot up by a bunch of hillbillies, but survive.

Jim Freeman, Chair of the BMF, commented: “Crikey, is nothing sacred? As an impressionable teenager, like so many, I was bowled over by the original. What about the soundtrack? That album was a steady seller for years. The whole ‘cruiser/custom’ market started with Easy Rider, and HD owe a lot to the original film. As with other remakes, I seriously doubt the original would have got made in 2022, Fonda, Hopper and Southern had enough trouble producing the original.”

Written by Peter Henshaw

Top image courtesy of Google Images