TO SIT THROUGH THE TRAILER REEL in the cinema this summer is to be offered a series of films that look in some way familiar. Here’s Furiosa, described as “A Mad Max Saga” — a spin-off of a reboot of a film franchise. Here’s Borderlands, based on a computer game. Here’s Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, in which Will Smith plays, for the fourth time, a character he first portrayed in 1995.
Hollywood, desperate for stories, has always mined existing content: could that book or toy be filmed? Could