I have always been fascinated by the old story…about a man who sleeps for years, then awakes and tries to fit in, but finds the future a difficult place.
Are there any newer versions of this tale?
I’ve read Heinlen’s “The Door Into Summer”…that is about the only such tale I am aware of…surely there are more versions of this theme?
Newer than “Rip Van Winkle”? Certainly. Looking Backwards for instance, used it in 1888.
The trope is still used, though usually with cryogenics. There were things like Woody Allen’s Sleeper, Cyril Kornbluth’s “The Marching Morons,” Isaac Asimov’s Pebble in the Sky (though I think Asimov blew his opportunity here), and Larry Niven’s The World Out of Time.
For a very recent version, read Will McIntosh’s Bridesicle (pdf), which, if there is any justice in the world, should win the Nebula Award this year.
There was also the utterly mediocre “L’homme qui dort cent ans,” which I read in French class in high school.
Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge
“The Time-Traveler” by Spider Robinson
I was also thinking about The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith but checking the synopsis I see that was actually somebody sent to a parallel universe not sent forward in time.
This was also the basic idea of the “Buck Rogers” space-opera franchise, growing out of a pair of magazine short stories to include a newspaper comic strip and eventually including movie serials, feature films and a TV series. Buck Rogers was an early 20th century guy who slept for 500 years and, on awakening, was promptly recruited into the future military to Help Save Civilization.
Another movie version of the idea was “Just Imagine” (1930) in which the sleeper is comedian El Brendel. James Likeks did a page about this movie here.
Idiocracy - a movie by Mike Judge about two people from present times who are put into suspended animation and wake up in a future dominated by the lowest common denominator. It is terribly unsubtle social commentary, but pretty funny and scary at the same time.
Captain America of Marvel Comics would fit this role as well. He was frozen during WWII and was found and unfrozen in the wild 1960’s. A few of his best stories are of the man out of time variety.
The upcoming movie The First Avenger: Captain America in 2011 will focus on WWII. But it will then bridge over to the 2012 movie The Avengers. Presumably between them, there will be some focus on the 70 year jump for Steve Rogers.
Can’t vouch if it is good or not.
Let’s not forget Austin Powers and Dr. Evil. The first movie did a decent job showing the loneliness of Austin (at least for one whole minute).
As far as modern re-tellings of Washington Irving’s story, I’d recommend, of all things, the *Wishbone *episode Digging Up the Past, which told the story straight - aside from having a costumed Jack Russell terrier playing the part of Rip.
The thing that struck me is, of all the versions I saw in school, none brought out a key element of the story, namely, that Rip went to sleep as a loyal subject of King George, and woke up a free citizen of the United States. The Wishbone version showed this very clearly. It also showed that Rip slept so long because he got drunk on beer provided by the ghosts of Henry Hudson and his men, which was somehow omitted from all the school versions.
I suppose you could include “The Man Without a Country” by Edward Everett Hale in this genre. Philip Nolan didn’t go forward in time - it was the reverse; he was frozen in time and was essentially stuck in the past while the present moved on without him.
And Futurama!
Not quite the same thing, but the movie Blast from the Past, with Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Sissy Spacek, and Christopher Walken is about a family that lives in a bomb shelter for 35 years after the Cuban missile crisis, and re-emerges in the late 1990s.
Read Ozymandias by Terry Carr. It appears in a few anthologies, including Harlan Ellison’s Again, Dangerous Visions
There’s also Demolition Man, starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, and America’s sweetheart Sandra Bullock.
Then I guess you haven’t seen the Mr. Magoo version. They actually cover that change. Rip-Magoo at one point says “God bless King George!” His neighbors give him very unfriendly looks.
Although his long sleep is presented as being the result of drinking with the fairies, I think.
Actually, if you’re looking for an adaptation, Classics Illustrated #12 was a pretty faithful rendering of the story. Of course, it’s about fifty years old, so it depends on your definition of “modern”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23400214/Rip-Van-Winkle-Classics-Illustrated
http://www.tkinter.smig.net/ClassicsIllustrated/RipVanWinkle/index.htm
Holy Crap!
Bridesicle was awesome.
I actually teared up here sitting in my office with the door closed.
All of Asimov’s Magazine is available online… for free?
Thank you very very much for the link. RealityChuck!
The only good version was the Flintstones version
And of course Vanilla Ice
oops that’s Robert Van Winkle 
Also the story it’s (somewhat loosely) based on, C.M. Kornbluth’s The Marching Morons, which is a bit more cynical.
The Sleeper Awakes, by H.G. Wells.
The origin of the trope might be the tale of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.
And, of course, tvtropes has a page.