# Dear Og, yet another unnecessary remake **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 1, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486 "2016-08-01T19:10:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/1 "2016-08-01T19:10:42Z")
Variety Magazine is reporting that they are interested in rebooting the movie “Splash’” with Channing Tatum and Jillian Bell in the starring roles. > **[Channing Tatum, Jillian Bell to Star in ‘Splash’ Remake for Disney](https://variety.com/2016/film/news/splash-remake-channing-tatum-jillian-bell-1201827697/)** > > Disney is in early discussions with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment about rebooting “Splash,” one of the production banner’s early classics. Channing Tat… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/2 "2016-08-01T19:17:09Z")
But with Tatum as the merman, right? ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/3 "2016-08-01T20:40:31Z")
The lifeblood of Hollywood is remakes and has been since its inception. No remakes would have meant no Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, no Some Like It Hot with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, no Scarface with Al Pacino, no Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland. Sure, remakes are mainly crap but then all movies are mainly crap so it’s no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/4 "2016-08-01T20:54:42Z")
Famously, Splash made the name “Madison” popular for girls. (The mermaid named herself after Madison Avenue.) Wonder what Channing Tatum’s merman will name himself, and if that name will become popular for boys? Yesterday I saw the trailer for Sully, the movie about the pilot who landed a jet in the Hudson River. Tom Hanks, the original male lead in Splash, plays the pilot. You know what would be fun? If Darryl Hannah, the original mermaid in Splash, cameos. (Her character saved his life when he fell in the water as a little kid.) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/5 "2016-08-01T21:12:31Z")
I wouldn’t call the original a classic, so personally I don’t care terribly. Though, on the other hand, outside of a topless Darryl Hannah, I don’t know that there was much about the original that was really selling seats to your mass audience. It may have still done well as a romcom, with a typical romcom audience. But, I suspect, Mermaid Darryl is what brought in the male audience and made the film stand out enough to ask for a remake. So, if you replace Darryl with Jillian Bell, it seems like you’ve lost the sales gimmick. She’s a perfectly good looking woman, but not in a centerfold sense. I doubt the strategy would still work in the Internet age, but if they wanted a go for it, they’d do better with Lake Bell. But fundamentally, I’m not seeing a lot of potential for this. It may and up a perfectly good film, but I doubt that they’re saving any money by pilfering the original plotline and, from the casting (of both Jillian and Tatum), it looks like they’re probably going to end up with something more guffaw-style comedy and probably not too romantic, so I doubt that the audience with whom the film would have name recognition are going to see much in common between what they liked about the old film and the new one. The old one was pretty mushy and the comedy was baked pretty heavily into a quasi-realistic presentation. It didn’t come across as a comedy so much as a romance with a few funny moments (unless I’m misremembering). So older viewers are probably going to be put off by the “dumbing down” of the style and the newer viewers will have never heard of the original. But eh, there’s no reason not to go ahead and do a remake either. Like I said, the original wasn’t exactly a classic for the ages. > [@aldiboronti](#): > > The lifeblood of Hollywood is remakes and has been since its inception. No remakes would have meant no Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, no Some Like It Hot with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, no Scarface with Al Pacino, no Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland. > > Sure, remakes are mainly crap but then all movies are mainly crap so it’s no big deal. Yeah, but every once in a while everything works out to make a classic. Once you have a classic, you’re better off to just re-release the old movie than to try and remake it. That’s just a waste of cash. Hollywood seems to have forgotten that re-releasing a film is a thing which can be done. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/6 "2016-08-01T21:31:08Z")
What an asinine idea-To pick a hokey movie like _Splash_ to remake, when what the world really needs something of substance…like a retelling of _Mannequin_! ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/7 "2016-08-01T22:30:39Z")
I think Jillian Bell is hilarious and I’d watch her reading the phone book. I’ll catch this one when it comes on TV or on a plane flight. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/8 "2016-08-01T22:33:19Z")
What would be a “necessary” remake? ---
**Author:** ![Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waltzes_with_Cacti)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/9 "2016-08-01T22:45:13Z")
> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#): > > What would be a “necessary” remake? Not sure if it was “necessary,” but _Dirty Rotten Scoundrels_ (1988) was a remake and a huge improvement over the film it was based on, a dim and disappointing little comedy called _Bedtime Story_ (1964.). And then somebody added some snappy tunes and remade _DRS_ as a hit musical on Broadway. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/10 "2016-08-01T22:47:50Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Yeah, but every once in a while everything works out to make a classic. Once you have a classic, you’re better off to just re-release the old movie than to try and remake it. That’s just a waste of cash. Hollywood seems to have forgotten that re-releasing a film is a thing which can be done. Few people will go to the multiplex to see a movie that they have on DVD or could stream. (Now, TCM does show old movies in my multiplex, usually on Sundays and Thursdays. These can be anything from a B&W classic like The Maltese Falcon to a recent classic like Stripes.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/11 "2016-08-01T22:59:24Z")
And actually, you should be grateful that they’re “only” remaking Splash. Because the other thing that they’re doing is taking an old property and turning it into a franchise. That’s the plan for Ghostbusters, for which they plan multiple movies, television shows, video games and the like. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/12 "2016-08-01T23:03:06Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Few people will go to the multiplex to see a movie that they have on DVD or could stream. (Now, TCM does show old movies in my multiplex, usually on Sundays and Thursdays. These can be anything from a B&W classic like The Maltese Falcon to a recent classic like Stripes.) If advertised like a big new release, I bet you could get 75% of the turnaround of a new release on the big screen, but at zero production cost and zero risk of the film being a dud. They just don’t advertise films like they’re the new big thing. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/13 "2016-08-01T23:46:58Z")
> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#): > > What would be a “necessary” remake? Presumably, one where the original had a lot of unrealized potential. Or one where the original, while basically a good movie, was so dated in some way that modern audiences couldn’t appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/14 "2016-08-01T23:53:01Z")
I, generally, don’t like remakes/reboots, especially when they’re for movies I love (not _Splash_ 🙂 ) but I saw a trailer for the _Magnificent Seven_ remake, and I must say, it looks very good. So far. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/15 "2016-08-02T00:30:26Z")
Of course, M7 was a remake itself. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/16 "2016-08-02T00:34:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What an asinine idea-To pick a hokey movie like _Splash_ to remake, when what the world really needs something of substance…like a retelling of _Mannequin_! Oh, no! No, no, no! I am NOT watching a woman hang-glide around the inside of a department store again! Four times was enough! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/17 "2016-08-02T00:45:37Z")
This doesn’t have to be a remake. As they’re swapping the genders, and presumably altering many elements of the plot, they can comfortably make it a sequel. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/18 "2016-08-02T00:51:28Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Oh, no! No, no, no! I am NOT watching a woman hang-glide around the inside of a department store again! Four times was enough! And the only saving grace from those movies, Meshach Taylor, aka Hollywood, died a few years back. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/19 "2016-08-02T01:51:42Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Of course, M7 was a remake itself. And I’ve seen them ALL!!! 😃 Even a crappy sword and sandals one that I can barely remember. I WOULD like to see a Seven Samurai remake, which makes me fickle I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486/20 "2016-08-02T02:31:17Z")
I just read on another forum that Seven Bochco wants to remake LA Law. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-og-yet-another-unnecessary-remake/761486.md?page=2)