Revisit: sequels with very long gaps and roles played by same actors

[jackdavinci]

A bunch of examples entered my awareness this week so I turned it into a thread:

On LOGO the other night I saw It's *Still* Elementary, which looks back on the impact of the groundbreaking documentary/educational film It's Elementary. I seem to recall there also being (unrelated except for theme) some documentary series which followed people from a young age, and then would revisit them every ten years or so.

Another recent thread mentions Before Sunrise and Before Sunset (9 year gap).

The Last Picture Show and Texasville (33 year gap).

Donnie Darko and S. Darko (8 year gap, Daveigh Chase reprising her role as Donnie's sister).

I think the latter is particularly remarkable since the actress was a pre-teen in the original, and they still chose to keep the same actress 8 years later.

Any other examples, favorites, comments on whether the idea of doing that is good or bad?

TV series reunions are fair game too! I was looking forward to the Growing Pains reunion but wasn't entirely happy with it. Maybe because of the Kirk Cameron weirdness and the political stuff.

To add another spin to this thread, I have to ask if any filmmaker has, rather than make more than one film years apart with the same actors, instead intentionally halted production on a single film for many years and waited for the actors to age naturally before resuming production?

I've thought this might be an interesting way to film adaptations for novels such as The Man Who Folded Himself, which take place over the span of a person's lifetime.

[enalzi]

First thought was Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine in Return of the Jedi and then the Prequels (and I suppose the guys playing C-3PO and R2-D2 as well.)

It seems to becoming more common recently, with Rocky Balboa, Rambo 4, Indiana Jones 4, and Wall Street 2. And Wienstein/Miramax started talking about making a lot of sequels to older movies.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Paul Newman played the same character (Fast Eddie Felson) in The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986), 25 years apart.

[Dewey Finn]

On LOGO the other night I saw It's *Still* Elementary, which looks back on the impact of the groundbreaking documentary/educational film It's Elementary. I seem to recall there also being (unrelated except for theme) some documentary series which followed people from a young age, and then would revisit them every ten years or so.
I think you mean the Up Series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Series), which features the same fourteen people every seven years, starting at age seven.

[GuanoLad]

The BBC just had a new season of Upstairs Downstairs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstairs,_Downstairs), starring Jean Marsh in the same role. Even though it was set only 15 years later, it was actually 35 years since the original series ended.

[commasense]

I created a thread with a similar concept (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=384510)about four and a half years ago. The example I started with:

I just caught an episode of the new Twilight Zone from 2003 called "It's Still a Good Life." It's a sequel to the memorable 1961 episode of the original TZ called "It's a Good Life" about a petulant little boy with the power to vanish anything or anyone who annoys him "to the cornfield." The 2003 show is about the same boy forty years later, now that he has his own seven-year-old daughter.

The character of Anthony Fremont in the original show was played by seven-year-old actor Billy Mumy (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0612621/), who went on to play Will Robinson in Lost in Space. The actor playing 49-year-old Anthony Fremont in the 2003 was...

Bill Mumy (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0612621/).

Yep, same guy, 42 years later. The other posters in that thread gave some examples you should find interesting.

[CalMeacham]

A Man and a Woman and a Man and a Woman, 20 Years Later, which has the same actors reprising their roles, well, 20 years later.



The Murder, She Wrote episode "The Days Dwindle Down" , aired in 1987 had Harry Morgan, Jeffry Lynn, and Martha Scott reprising their roles from the 1949 film Strange Bargain (clips of which were incorporated into the show as flashbacks), a gap of 38 years.

[RealityChuck]

I seem to recall there also being (unrelated except for theme) some documentary series which followed people from a young age, and then would revisit them every ten years or so.That's Michael Apted's still-ongoing "Up" series: Seven Up, Seven Plus 7, 21 Up, 28 Up, 35 Up, 42 Up and 49 Up.

Any other examples, favorites, comments on whether the idea of doing that is good or bad?The Black Bird is a sequel to The Maltese Falcon, 34 years later. While Sam Spade is dead, both Wilmer Cook and Effie from the original are around. It's a pretty lame comedy other than that, though.

[Mahaloth]

I think you mean the Up Series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Series), which features the same fourteen people every seven years, starting at age seven.

They have actually lost people along the way, those who don't want to continue being examined every 7 years. However, they have been able to stick with most of them and it is fascinating.

Even though the people are all older than me, I think of them as kids because I've watched the movies and seen them group up from age 7. How differently would we view those older than us if we had seen them as kids?

[Mahaloth]

It seems to becoming more common recently, with Rocky Balboa, Rambo 4, Indiana Jones 4, and Wall Street 2. And Wienstein/Miramax started talking about making a lot of sequels to older movies.

Not to mention Indiana Jones 4, which had both Karen Allen and Harrison Ford, 28 years after the original movie they appeared in.

[Ferret Herder]

Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010), 28 years apart.

[Shoeless]

Psycho (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/) (1960) and Psycho II (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086154/) (1983).

Chinatown (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/) (1973) and The Two Jakes (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100828/) (1990).

[Sam Stone]

The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission, made in 1985, starred Lee Marvin, Richard Jaeckal, and Ernest Borgnine, all of whom where in the original The Dirty Dozen shot in 1967 - 18 years apart.

[Mahaloth]

Not to mention Indiana Jones 4, which had both Karen Allen and Harrison Ford, 28 years after the original movie they appeared in.

I just realized that Indy 4 had already been mentioned.

My bad.

[kunilou]

James Garner played Bret Marverick for the final time in 1982, 25 years after he first appeared.

BONUS! Garner played Jim Rockford for the final time in 1999, 25 years after that character first appeared.

[John DiFool]

Keir Dullea played Dave Bowman in 2001 (1968) and 2010 (1984), and looked the same in both films (when he wasn't in aged makeup of course).

[Jim's Son]

Charles Laughton won an Oscar for "Henry the VIII" in 1933 and reprised the role 20 years later for "Young Bess".

Jack Webb had two separate runs as Joe Friday in "Dragnet" TV series in the early 1950s and late 1960s when LSD eating Blue Boys threatened the youth. He had a lot of character actors return from the first series such as Virginia Gregg. He'd have brought back Ben Alexander too but he had another series "Felony Squad. So he had to get Harry Morgan as the slightly eccentric partner always telling Joe to get married. Amazingly Morgan is still alive at 95 hen a lot of people from that show died in their late 50s/early 60s. Getting supplied with free cigarettes by their sponsor Chesterfield in the 1950s didn't help.

Raymond Burr as Perry Mason with Barbara Hale as Della Street as TV series mid 50s-mid 60s and a bunch of TV movies from mid 80s to Burr's death.

[elfkin477]

Donnie Darko and S. Darko (8 year gap, Daveigh Chase reprising her role as Donnie's sister).

I think the latter is particularly remarkable since the actress was a pre-teen in the original, and they still chose to keep the same actress 8 years later.

Eric Lloyd, who is currently twenty-four, played Charlie Calvin in The Santa Clause (1994) when he was eight, The Santa Clause 2 (2002) when he was sixteen, and The Santa Clause 3 (2006) when he was twenty. And in the latter two movies, four years apart, they kept the same child actress (Liliana Mumy) as his younger half-sister too.

I do agree, though, it's more impressive if the actor who retains the role in a later sequel was a child in the first appearance considering it's rarer.

[Eonwe]

Star Trek ended 10 years before the first film was released, with all staring characters reprising their roles, and continuing to do so for the subsequent films.

[TPWombat]

Earl Boen played the character of Dr Silberman in the first 3 Terminator movies, 1984, 1991, and 2003.

[alphaboi867]

The BBC just had a new season of Upstairs Downstairs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstairs,_Downstairs), starring Jean Marsh in the same role. Even though it was set only 15 years later, it was actually 35 years since the original series ended.

Wow! :D I am so watching that the first chance I get.

Along the same lines To the Manor Born got a Christmas special a few years ago; 25 years after the show ended. Nothing to do with Christmas; Richard and Audrey were about to celebrate their Silver Anniversery. The actors who played them, as well as Majory & the Rector showed up (the latter for 1 scene). Brabinger, Mrs Poo., and Bertie appeared in photograph form, their actors all having died.

[jasonh300]

Clerks and Clerks II were 12 years apart.

Kevin Smith saved up enough money over 12 years to film the second one in color.

[Mahaloth]

James Garner played Bret Marverick for the final time in 1982, 25 years after he first appeared.
.

Wasn't Zane Cooper in the movie Maverick(1994) really Bret Maverick, since it is revealed he is Mel Gibson's Dad?

Something like that anyway?

[Sam Stone]

Well, there wasn't a very big gap between sequels, but Desmond Llewelyn played 'Q' in the James Bond movies for 37 years.

[Little Nemo]

To add another spin to this thread, I have to ask if any filmmaker has, rather than make more than one film years apart with the same actors, instead intentionally halted production on a single film for many years and waited for the actors to age naturally before resuming production?Quentin Tarantino has supposedly done this. While he was filming scenes for Kill Bill, he allegedly filmed some extra scenes with Uma Thurman, Vivica Fox, and Ambrosia Kelley with the idea that he might incorporate them into a possible sequel in approximately fifteen years where Nikki seeks revenge for her mother's murder.

[jackdavinci]

Quentin Tarantino has supposedly done this. While he was filming scenes for Kill Bill, he allegedly filmed some extra scenes with Uma Thurman, Vivica Fox, and Ambrosia Kelley with the idea that he might incorporate them into a possible sequel in approximately fifteen years where Nikki seeks revenge for her mother's murder.

I remember that! Won't it be cool if he uses the same actress that played the little girl? What will he call it though? "Kill Beatrix" just doesn't have the same ring to it...

[mbh]

Richard Lester's musketeer movies:
The Three Musketeers, 1973, and The Four Musketeers 1974.
The Return of the Musketeers 1989.

16 year gap. Sadly, several of the actors have died, so we probably won't get to see them do The Man in the Iron Mask.

[Little Nemo]

I remember that! Won't it be cool if he uses the same actress that played the little girl?Ambrosia Kelley is fifteen years old now and she's still working as an actress so it's a possibility.

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

Decline of the American Empire was released in 1986. It's sequel, the Oscar winning The Barbarian Invasions came out in 2003 with most of the cast reprising their roles.

ETA: That's 17 years for anyone who doesn't want to do the math.

[Maserschmidt]

That's Michael Apted's still-ongoing "Up" series: Seven Up, Seven Plus 7, 21 Up, 28 Up, 35 Up, 42 Up and 49 Up.



And now 56 Up is running on British TV! Unfortunately I haven't found a way to watch it here in the US yet...

[Mahaloth]

And now 56 Up is running on British TV! Unfortunately I haven't found a way to watch it here in the US yet...


Outside bittorrenting it, I don't think it is viewable in the US yet. :(

[magnusblitz]

It's a remake rather than a sequel, but Peter Cullen reprised his role of Optimus Prime in the new Transformers films - 20 years after doing the role in the cartoon/animated movie.

[PSXer]

Kurt Russel was Snake in Escape From New York and Escape from LA 15 years apart

[alphaboi867]

Tom Savini planed a biker gang member Blades in 1978's Dawn of the Dead, 27 yrs later he made a cameo appeance as the character's zombie in 2005's Land of the Dead. That's a 27 year gap (though in the highly vauge timeline of the Living Dead films it's only 3 yrs in-universe).

[Smapti]

The 2000 sequel/remake of Shaft had Richard Roundtree reprise the role of John Shaft, 29 years after the original.