Remakes are held to such more scrutiny than original films. There are a lot of different views on remakes, re-boots, re-imaginings or whatever the hell you want to call them. If a it's a re-imagining of a successful film, then it damn well better do the original justice. If it's a reboot of a franchise then it has to be the complete opposite of what the original was attempting to do. And even if it's a remake of a film that isn't necessarily held to extremely high esteem, it's highly subject to default skepticism. Such is the case with The Taking of Pellham 123.

Now I have to admit, that I have not seen the original yet (it's in my ever growing Netflix queue), but I don't think that a remake of the 1974 film of the same name warrants any automatic backlash. First of all, I dare anybody to call any of the characters in the original film iconic or put the film in a Top 100 list. It's not happening. Personally, since the film is also an adaptation of a book by Morton Freedgood, it should be looked at just the same. How many different adaptations of the Lord of the Rings trilogy or the Chronicles of Narnia series have been made. That's an extreme example, but no one gets pissed about those. People have said that this is a remake that doesn't need to be made. It's not like they're remaking The Godfather.

Personally, I think the Tony Scott directed film looks like a great return of John Travolta to the action genre and pinning him up against the formidable force that is Denzel Washington. The trailer doesn't give too much away in the vein of plot other than that Travolta and a team of terrorists are holding the Pellham 123 train hostage for ransom, and Denzel, as the subway dispatcher and Trainsit Authority lieutenant has to negotiate. The intersting element that comes into play is where are these hostage takers going to go once they get their money (they're trapped in the subway tunnel system with nowhere to run). Trailer is embedded below for your thoughts.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Today Paramount Pictures announced that they have bumped up the release date for the action-packed sequel from June 26 to a whole two days earlier on June 24. That has to be such better placement for box office positioning. I'm making my sarcastic face right now.

The Matarese Circle - Variety announced today a collaboration between Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington to work on this adaptation of a thriller by Robert Ludlum (author of the Bourne Trilogy books). Film focuses on "two bitter enemy spies who, after spending two decades trying to kill each other, grudgingly team up against the Matarese, a powerful group at the root of a conspiracy." Writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (Wanted) are updating the book's Cold War elements for modern times. Distributor MGM also has the rights to the follow-up book The Materese Countdown for a potential sequel.

Jonah Hex - John Malkovich has been cast to do battle against Josh Brolin in this adaptation of a DC Comics publication. Josh Brolin has been set as the facially deformed former Confederate soldier-turned-gunslinger Jonah Hex for awhile now and Malkovich's casting places him opposite Brolin as Quentin Turnbull, a plantation owner who apparently has sworn vengeance against Hex for causing the death of his son during the Civil War. Horton Hears a Who director Jimmy Hayward is directing

The Adventurer's Handbook - Universal has acquired the rights to a high profile spec script written by Jonah Hill and his writing partners Max Winkler (Henry "The Fonz" Winkler's son) and Matthew Spicer. Variety says the film is a "comedy in which a quartet of pals go on a global adventure, inspired by the hardcore stories of explorers whose tales are chronicled in [Mick] Conefrey's book [The Adventurer's Handbook]. Multiple studios were interested in the film bidding back and forth until the deal went to universal for a seven figure sum. The script was so high profile that EW reports, "The script was sent over on red, watermarked paper so it couldn't be photocopied. Multiple studios were interested in the project described as an edgy, broad comedy." Jonah Hill and Jason Scwartzman have already signed on to star.

Untitled Social Networking Teen Thriller - This one speaks for itself in that "WTF Really?!" kind of way. Hollywood Reporter announced that Dimension Films is looking to make some bank off the popularity of social networking sites like Facebook by mixing up a teenage thriller based around one of these sites. Bob Weinstein commented, ""Online social networking is a widespread phenomenon that interests me greatly. Combining it with a suspense thriller is a new and fresh way to explore this new trend." Almost as fresh as having cell phones being the killer. Oh wait...

H2: Halloween 2 - Heroes speedster girl Brea Grant has been cast in Rob Zombie's slasher sequel. Bloody Disgusting reports that Grant will be playing "Mya Rockwell, Laurie Strode's co-worker at Uncle Meat's Jave Hole. " Whatever that means. She's been a breath of fresh air on Heroes despite the cast being unable to sustain its big numbers. Should be interesting to see her in this type of film.

Cinema Bits is a recurring installment here at Screen Rider providing you with brief snippets of casting, production and all things newsworthy in movies and television.