Today’s lesson: Movie Remake Soundbyte 101, featuring Anne Hathaway.

Please join me in welcoming to the Institute for Mind-Bludgeoningly Obvious Movie Marketing the actress Anne Hathaway as our guest lecturer today!

Polite applause.

Of course, Ms. Hathaway has really come into her own in the last six years, having parlayed astounding success in saccharine family movies into a rather studied and measured public persona of absolutely no distinguishable characteristics whatsoever. In a refreshing twist from most young starlets battling their own private demons of body odor, ba-donka-donk or, of course, Racehorse Charlie, Ms. Hathaway has managed to elude the more glaring – or, as some might say, “interesting” – shine of the harsh spotlight of Hollywood.

Today we’re in for a real treat. As one of the costars of next year’s big-screen Get Smart reimagining, Ms. Hathaway has seen fit to share with us here at IMBOMM her keen insight on how best to honor the spirit and the rich history of a classic, beloved character. Let’s take a look at this invaluable tool – a template, if you will – provided to us today from Ms. Anne Hathaway:

We all love the original series…And you will not find bigger fans than us. And we all decided we wanted to be very respectful, while at the same time wanting to put our own mark on the film. So what we talked about with [the character that someone else created] was rather than making her a carbon copy of [the actress who originated the character's] creation, we decided to respect the spirit of [the original character who was just fine and probably did not at all warrant a remake], which was that she was a fully realized woman of her time. So rather than take [the original actress who probably isn't all that happy about the remake, despite what her publicist may tell you] and put her in 2008, … when the film comes out, we decided to make [the original character, who actually has very little relevance in a modern-day film but who may, the studio hopes, sell a few action figures] a fully actualized woman of 2008. And so, as a result, I do get some zingers. I’m a little bit of a hell-raiser. And, hopefully, we also retain some of the elegance of the original character.

Simply brilliant, isn’t it? The way Ms. Hathaway hits all of her expected points and shows deep respect while at the same time saying nothing at all. Sublime.

A special thanks to Ms. Anne Hathaway for honoring us today! And don’t forget to return to IMBOMM next week when we’ll be featuring part eight of our groundbreaking series Big Floating Heads on the One-Sheet: Why Bigger and More Floating Are Never Quite Big or Floating Enough.

(Hathaway soundbyte courtesy of SCI FI Wire.)