It’s funny that Paul Walker from the Fast and Furious series is up for what’s going to be a modern day version of The Towering Inferno.
Simply put, that’s because he’s been compared to Steve McQueen, and McQueen of course was the fire fighter hero of Inferno. Although The Poseidon Adventure is technically a better film, The Towering Inferno is my favorite disaster film, and apparently the disaster genre’s still marching on in modern form.
As Cinema Blend reports, the upcoming Skyscraper will take place in downtown Chicago, but instead of a fire, we find out there’s problems with the building’s structure, and it’s probably going to collapse, unless Walker can save the day. The story has a real estate mogul who will probably be the villain of the story – perhaps based on Trump?
Funny enough, as we also reported on TG, there’s another earthquake film in the works, San Andreas 3D. Both Earthquake and The Towering Inferno came out in 1974, and both were big hits when the disaster genre was at its peak. (Inferno was even nominated for Best Picture, but it lost to The Godfather Part II).
In modern day cinema, Roland Emmerich has become the master of disaster, replacing Posedion producer Irwin Allen with ID4, 2012, and The Day After Tomorrow, which wouldn’t be out of place with The Towering Inferno back in the ‘70’s.
A big part of the appeal of a disaster film were the big all star casts before star salaries were $20 million a piece, and the suspense of waiting out who will make it, who won’t, and who will be the hero who figures a way out.
With Skyscarper and San Andreas, the disaster genre’s obviously trying to reinvent itself yet again, and we’ll just have to see if either film can make it to the silver screen out of the development process and succeeded or go down in the flames of development hell. Sounds like a disaster film right there actually…
