'Annie' Remake Tries To Put A Spin On The Classic [Trailer & Pictures]

Remaking a beloved musical is risky business: there's a reason no one has ever made a new movie version of 'West Side Story' or 'The Sound of Music'. And yet filmmaker Will Gluck took on the 1977 stage musical 'Annie', which was previously filmed for cinemas in 1982 and television in 1999.

'Annie' stars Quvenzhane Wallis and Jamie Foxx

The biggest controversy was his decision to completely remix the songs, dropping some and adding others, all with a pop-chart feel instead of the catchy musical-comedy style of the original tunes.

More: Read the Review for 'Annie'

"I was very scared going into this," says Gluck, who wrote, directed and produced the new movie. "A lot of people have this memory of being Annie when they put it on stage in middle school. So we didn't want to touch that memory. We wanted to create our own."

Watch The Trailer For 'Annie' Here:

Gluck worked with musical producer Greg Kurstin and pop star Sia to rework the songs. "There are songs that people love in the show," Gluck says, "so we knew they needed to stay pretty close to what they were - like 'Tomorrow', 'Maybe', 'Hard Knock Life' - but with an updated 2014-pop really energetic-percussive vibe to them."

More: "Annie" Movie To Feature Cameron Diaz As Grumpy Orphanage Headmistress

The original 'Annie' is set during the Great Depression, but this new version essentially ignores the recent Great Recession ("not too interesting for kids these days"), and Gluck admits that changing the story meant that the lyrics had to change, "and then the melodies changed along with it".

More: The 'Annie' Remake: EVERYTHING You Need To Know

Critics have so far been seriously unimpressed with Gluck's take on the musical. "It's hard to believe that the sun will come out tomorrow for the new Annie," wrote Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times, While The New York Times' A.O. Scott calls it "hacky" and "borderline incompetent". Audiences will have their say at the box office.

Quvenzhane Wallis and Jamie Foxx star in 'Annie'
Quvenzhane Wallis and Jamie Foxx star in 'Annie'