# Movie Remakes are now officially out of control! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 22, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064 "2005-08-22T02:40:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/61 "2005-08-24T05:00:47Z")
I keep waiting for an out-and-out remake of Metropolis, but it’s so damn influential that it’s practically been remade a thousand times anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/62 "2005-08-24T14:30:12Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Yep, Hollywood is almost completely bereft of fresh ideas. The sad thing is that Hollywood is awash with new ideas, but the studios are controlled by lawyers and accountants with no creative judgement whatsoever. They have no idea how to judge which concepts will be successful, and which will flop, so they have decided audiences will flock to see the same stories that were successful years ago. It is fear of failure, pure and simple. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/63 "2005-08-24T15:44:11Z")
> [@Kolak of Twilo](#): > > If I may nitpick a little: \*\*Cheaper by the Dozen \*\* was based on the book of the same name written by Frank B. Gilbreth & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey and supposedly based on their marriage. It was made into a film in 1950 starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy. The recent Steve Martin film was a remake of that. I’ll nitpick a lot. It wasn’t a remake- it was a totally different story with the same title. I actually enjoyed the Steve Martin one for what it was- once I abandoned any hope it was a remake of CBTD. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/64 "2005-08-25T01:37:06Z")
Latest sign: _The Secret Life of Walter Mitty_, starring (shudder) Owen Wilson. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/65 "2005-08-25T05:10:15Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I’ll nitpick a lot. It wasn’t a remake- it was a totally different story with the same title. > > I actually enjoyed the Steve Martin one for what it was- once I abandoned any hope it was a remake of CBTD. You are, of course, correct. This is a large part of why the soon to be released remake of **Yours, Mine and Ours** has me so annoyed. From the trailer it seems that it departs rather drastically from the original movie and book. Possibly to the same degree as the Martin film of CBTD. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/66 "2005-08-25T05:11:34Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > Latest sign: _The Secret Life of Walter Mitty_, starring (shudder) Owen Wilson. > :eek: Well, the Danny Kaye movie certainly wandered off pretty far from the Thurber story as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/67 "2005-08-25T05:13:11Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > The sad thing is that Hollywood is awash with new ideas, but the studios are controlled by lawyers and accountants with no creative judgement whatsoever. They have no idea how to judge which concepts will be successful, and which will flop, so they have decided audiences will flock to see the same stories that were successful years ago. It is fear of failure, pure and simple. Prove them wrong, audiences. ---
**Author:** ![yastobaal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/258eb7/32.png) [@yastobaal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yastobaal)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/68 "2005-08-25T08:17:52Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Prove them wrong, audiences. Well doesn’t the current box office slump imply that audiences have started to realise that you don’t always have to go see the film no matter what. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/69 "2005-08-25T09:54:39Z")
The problem is that unless the audiences are going to the ‘indie’ films, and not simply waiting to buy the movie on DVD, instead, the studio bean counter types aren’t going to change strategies. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/70 "2005-08-28T01:33:35Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > After I saw _Logan’s Run_ a few months ago, I felt _The Matrix_ movies owed it an awfully big debt. … Really? How so? (FTR any version of _Logan’s Run_ that doesn’t have a youngish Jenny Agutter running around half the movie in in a diaphonous nightey, and the other half running around in a _soaking wet_ diaphonous nightey, is pointless.) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2005, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/71 "2005-08-28T02:26:07Z")
> [@yastobaal](#): > > Well doesn’t the current box office slump imply that audiences have started to realise that you don’t always have to go see the film no matter what. If it continues for long enough, maybe. There are too many confounds right now- a bad crop of films _this year_, economic and fuel stuff… I’d like to think so, but I don’t think the studios will change their way of business based on a couple of months. **Lagomorph** … I’d have to see it again. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2005, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064/72 "2005-08-28T02:25:16Z")
> [@yastobaal](#): > > Well doesn’t the current box office slump imply that audiences have started to realise that you don’t always have to go see the film no matter what. If it continues for long enough, maybe. There are too many confounds right now- a bad crop of films _this year_, economic and fuel stuff… I’d like to think so, but I don’t think the studios will change their way of business based on a couple of months. **Lagomorph** … I’d have to see it again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-remakes-are-now-officially-out-of-control/318064.md?page=3)