Easy Rider was a landmark counterculture film from the late ’60s, but perhaps a modern update could work. The current rightsholders think so, anyway. The original film was penned by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern. It showcased the changing cultural landscape at the end of the ’60s and the hippie era through the story of a pair of drug smuggling bikers traveling through the American South.
Easy Rider became a surprise smash in 1969, not only launching Fonda and Hopper’s careers in Hollywood (along with a relatively unknown co-star named Jack Nicholson), but helping fuel a whole wave of American movies by young up-and-coming filmmakers. The period eventually became known as the “New Hollywood” era, and is still regarded as one of the greatest periods in the history of American cinema.
The rights to the original Easy Rider are owned by a large international conglomerate, called the Jean Boulle group, in addition to a few others, like shareholders and producers. They told Variety that they are now planning a modern “reboot” of the material. As producer Maurice Fadida put it:
Our goal is to build upon the counterculture and freedom narrative the original left us with, and 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. We are hoping to play a part in that shift.
No real release date or production timeline has been disclosed, but it’ll be interesting to see how this film’s journey shapes up.
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