More than a capsized ocean liner is askew in this halfhearted attempt to remake a true camp classic: 1972's pinnacle of disaster cinema The Poseidon Adventure. You remember, the one where a cruise ship is turned on its head by a monster wave and the wellheeled survivors climb to the top — er, bottom — of the sinking ship to get out. It's Titanic on steroids.
Sadly, this listless three-hour TV remake (Sunday, Nov. 20 at 8 pm/ET, NBC) — a new feature version is expected next year — wastes way too much time on a terrorist-bombing subplot that feels like amateur night on 24. An explosion, not Mother Nature, sends the S.S. Poseidon topsyturvy, and it often seems as if the entire catastrophe was arranged so cheating husband Steve Guttenberg (who's all wet from the start) can see the light.
In a nod to the new century, one of the survivors is an Australian reality-show
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Question: A friend of mine says there are two remakes of The Poseidon Adventure (1972) in the works, one for theaters and one for TV. How can that be? It's not like Titanic, where the source is a historical event anybody could draw on. If my friend is right, what gives?
Answer: Your friend is right: A four-hour miniseries version of The Poseidon Adventure is scheduled to air on NBC in November 2005, and Warner Bros. has a theatrical remake called Poseidon due out in 2006. Because neither project is finished, I don't have access to contractual credits, but my guess as to how it happened is that the theatrical version is a remake of the first film and the TV version is an adaptation of the original novel by Paul Gallico. The why is another matter; I can't even begin to say. In any event, the $150 million thea
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