What’s the longest time that’s run between the release of a film that’s a direct sequel? I’m specifically disqualifying franchise films like the James Bond series where for instance “Goldeneye” is separated by many years from “Dr. No” but there are intervening additional sequels. An example would be “The Color of Money,” a direct sequel to “The Hustler,” including featuring an original actor. “The Hustler” was released in 1961 and TCOM was released in 1986, for a separation of 25 years.
“Gone With The Wind” (1939)
“Scarlett” (1994)
55 years. “Scarlett” was a miniseries as opposed to a theatrical release but it’s an honest-to-goodness sequel so I think it’d count.
How about The Odd Couple? 1968 - 1998. 30 years.
**The Wizard of Oz ** 1939
Return to Oz 1985
Honest-to-goodness theatrical movie release.
Not the longest, but respectable:
Pyscho 1960
Psycho II 1983
23 years
A Man and a Woman (1966)
A Man and a Woman, 20 Years Later (1986)
20 years (duh!)
DrFidelius took mine, but I’ll mention Day Of The Dead(1985) and Land Of The Dead (2005) - 20 years.
For actual movies:
The Wizard of Oz – 1939
Return to Oz – 1985
(46 years)
Could be debated, since it had none of the original actors and was based more on the book than the movie.
The Maltese Falcon – 1941
The Black Bird – 1975
(34 years)
Probably the most concrete example. The remake had a couple of actors for the original (Lee Patrick and Elisha Cook, Jr.) and shows the adventures of Sam Spade’s son.
The first one I thought of was 2001 and 2010, but that’s only 16 years. (2001 in 1968, 2010 in 1984.) Not even close.
How do you count the negative 28 years between
Star Wars (episode IV: A New Hope) 1977
and
Star Wars (episode III: Revenge of the Sith) 2005
23 years between Carrie (1976) and The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) as well. Of course The Rage is quite possibly the lamest Carrie update possible as the “new Carrie” has parents who love her, a devoted boyfriend and is drop dead gorgeous.
And yet, she’s still some kind of outcast that goes on a murder spree, sure…
Is a cartoon released for a theater audience a “film”? If so one contender could be Bambi II (2006) which was put out 64 years after the original Bambi (1942) by the same Company (Walt Disney) in the the same cartoon “world” with the same characters and as a continuation of the same story…
IMDB also says:
*The film will use never implemented ideas meant for Bambi (1942).
The background-paintings were painted with “Corel Photo Paint”, but some of the original oil-painting backgrounds from the 1942 original movie were scanned with a computer, and parts of these scans were reused in the new backgrounds.
*
I just want to say Two Jakes is 16 years after Chinatown doesn’t come close to the better tries here - but that was what I first thought of