Disclaimer: I want to adapt a few projects into different mediums. I’m as guilty as the rest of us, but it’s an important topic none the less.

Is society poorer for having so much of our mass media adapted and remade? This has been on my mind from a few different perspectives. A few weeks ago in San Diego I was fortunate enough to have gotten some face time with Michael Uslan in a social setting. He’s a very interesting guy and I’ve rarely met a producer with as much enthusiasm for the material as he has. If you’re not familiar with the man he’s been producing Batman films from the era of Burton up until the current Dark Knight. He’s also the producer behind the upcoming adaptations of The Spirit, Shazam and a reboot of The Shadow. He looks at the films as entertainment, art and in a sense… education. He used to teach comic book mythology at the university level before getting in to the movie business and he approaches the movie making process (in some ways) as an exercise in retelling a camp fire tale. I understand and applaud this approach, but I wonder about the ripple effects of what a self-referential society are.

Looking around the rest of San Diego Comic Con I saw a sprawling amalgam of nostalgia. Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Death Race, Watchmen, Indiana Jones… walking the aisles was like treading water through my subconscious mind. It didn’t “click”with me that something might be wrong until I talked to an old friend of mine the other night. He started to debate me on the merits of the good Mr. Snyder adapting Watchmen. I started to form a thought that didn’t become clear until earlier today… mass media might be causing prolonged adolescence.

By prolonged adolescence I’m describing the age old Peter-Pan syndrome that keeps couples from marrying, people from attaining life goals in a linear path and ultimately shackles grown adults to highschool-like consumer habits.

Let’s consider the fact that many of us saw Indiana Jones in the movie theater when we were children. We’re still seeing him. The same goes for Batman and Super Man. Ghostbusters has a new video game coming out. “Nerd” culture just won’t let Star Wars die (even though it effectively murdered my personal enjoyment of it). I loved Speed Racer, but I also was one of the few people who watched it on reruns on MTV as a child. It’s like I just can’t seem to escape a unending feedback loop of things I was accustomed to seeing as a child! At a certain point it can do nothing but tarnish the memories I had as a child. It feels like media doesn’t want my generation to grow up and explore new or different ideas.

To give you an example of how strange this all is I want you all to imagine your parents (if you’re around my age) paying $12 a ticket to go see a Howdy Doody movie in 1975. All the while they’d have Howdy Doody magnets and tee shirts in tow. It would seem really weird. Well, this is no different.

It’s an issue with the culture clashing with the times. In an episode of Family Guy I saw Stewie posing as a highschool student say the following line:

“I took a bunch of pictures, you can see them on my myspace page along with my favourite songs and movies and things that other people have created that I use to express my individualism.”

I wonder if the writers realized that those lines were a summation of the appeal of the entire show? Each episode uses blurbs of pop culture that will be familiar to certain age range as sight gags. The irony is so thick you can cut it with a knife. What’s especially interesting is how this kind of recycling is creeping in to the advertising space too. If you’ve seen the new JC Penny commercials that mimic “The Breakfast Club” you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Is it working? I don’t know. I saw the commercial at a movie theater with a person who’s only a few years younger than me and she had never seen the original film.

Maybe that’s the double-edged sword of the whole thing. Maybe in ten years no one will talk about Star Wars anymore because children will only know it in its lackluster “Clone Wars” incarnation. Maybe time heals all wounds and this the current state of identity crisis is my generations way of coping with having it so easy?

It’s funny to me because childish behavior, mostly associated with dating and how people spend their free time seems to be stunted in my generation. I might be among the exceptions, I’m nearly 30 and already been through three careers and a marriage, but I seeing people my own age acting like they were ten years younger does bother me a little. There’s a difference between being childish and childlike. I prefer the second option.

Recycling pop culture you say? How is that different from what you do at Resonance Features with your remastered films, festivals and pay-per-view events? Aren’t you part of the problem? I’m not sure. Maybe. I do, however, feel strongly that we, as a society, need to appreciate the art that inspired us. We don’t try to remake films we try to expose the iconic cinema pieces to a fresh audience. For example, I’d always prefer to see the original Rollerball or over the remake.

I suppose my message to my readers is a simple one; go pick up some brand new novels, watch some brand new movies and treasure every minute of it because the experience may be a bygone novelty in the not too far future.