# Movies BEGGING to be remade **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762 "2012-01-17T02:51:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/41 "2012-01-17T22:57:10Z")
The Running Man. I actually like the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie for what it is, which is a goofy, over-the-top, Reagan-era action flick. But it’s pretty much a separate thing from the original Stephen King novel, which has some great potential as a dark, dystopian and sincere film (as opposed to the funhouse-type romp that was the Arnie movie). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/42 "2012-01-17T23:04:19Z")
My pick: [No Blade of Grass](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066154/) (based on the novel [The Death of Grass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Grass)). Post apocalyptic stuff is hot. The premise: a virus is killing all grasses on the planet. Unfortunately, that includes corn, wheat, and rice. Meaning starvation, civil unrest, etc. Our protagonist and his family are making a desperate cross-country journey to his brother’s potato farm. In the book, and in the original movie, the country is England. That would be fine, but it could just as easily be set in America. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/43 "2012-01-17T23:35:49Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Would you keep the white sheets? Absolutely. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/44 "2012-01-17T23:38:18Z")
I agree with The Last Starfighter, and one for the kids - Solarbabies ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/45 "2012-01-17T23:41:35Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Back in the '80s I tried to convince John Waters to remake _What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?_, with Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor. He said that was too weird even for _him_. It would have been way better than the remake [with Redgraves](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103242/). I think _A Clockwork Orange_ could fuel a remake, this time a bit closer to the book, or if it’s as far away then far away in a different angle. It’ll never happen, but I’d kind of like to see a remake of _Forrest Gump_ that stays closer to- or has more than a vague accidental resemblance to- the book. (For those who haven’t read the novel, the movie is far closer to Woody Allen’s _Zelig_ as tweaked by William Faulkner" than to Winston Groom’s material.) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/46 "2012-01-17T23:46:30Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Back in the '80s I tried to convince John Waters to remake _What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?_, with Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor. He said that was too weird even for _him_. Not weird! Awesome! I like **Miller** ’s _TRON_, too. But _The Last Starfighter_ was perfect as it was and Robert Preston is dead. To think that it was made just a year after _TRON_. CGI was advancing that fast. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/47 "2012-01-17T23:52:15Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > It would have been way better than the remake [with Redgraves](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103242/) See, if they were better, or worse (like the Gabors), actresses it could’ve been saved. As it was, they were just bland. But the original _Baby Jane_ was perfect and isn’t begging for a remake. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/48 "2012-01-17T23:53:43Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Back in the '80s I tried to convince John Waters to remake _What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?_, with Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor. He said that was too weird even for _him_. Damn, that could have been amazing … > [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Re-makes…hmmm…it’s hard to think of a movie that I would want to have remade. If it was original and terrible, why go to the trouble of remaking it? Especially when there are so friggin’ many properties that haven’t had their shot at the big screen yet: Rendezvous with Rama, At the Mountains of Madness, The Mote in God’s Eye, Snow Crash, etc… This really calls for a new cable channel, since the logical name is both taken and then bowlderized into syfy, perhaps name it ‘possibilities’ or ‘speculations’ and do nothing but mini series of sf and fantasy novels done right, none of these sharkapalooza bullcrap movies. For premade filler, go with the classics, The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, classic SF and fantasy movies from silent era through as new as the rights can be afforded. Get some killer talking heads like AMC used to have. Toss in a few of the old newsreels about how it might be in the future. There are so many books, so little time and very few producers and directors that wouldn’t fuck the projects up … > [@Hampshire](#): > > Avatar:TheLastAirbender > Keep Shamalamadingdong away from it and make it into 3 movies. I never watched the TV version, so I actually liked parts of the movie. I thought it had great possibility, but then it seemed like it was all chopped up. I did like the Fire Prince that was sort of a not so bad guy. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/49 "2012-01-18T00:14:47Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Not weird! Awesome! > > I like **Miller** ’s _TRON_, too. But _The Last Starfighter_ was perfect as it was and Robert Preston is dead. To think that it was made just a year after _TRON_. CGI was advancing that fast. Two years. Tron came out the summer of 1982, Last Starfighter the summer of 1984. the computer renders from Last Starfighter looked GREAT in stills, and they did some fighters from _Star Wars_ to show Lucas what was possible. But for some reason, when they did renders fr the movie, they looked mre cartoony. I suspect they cut a few corners for the film (or spent a lot of extra time for the stills). At the time, still images could be created entirely in the computer with realistic highlights, shading, and blur, as I’ve seen in other cases, but I think it was pushing for picture=-perfect quality for every frame of a movie. Lucas passed. Computer efects still looked like cartoons in _The Hunt for Red October_, years later, but it wasn’t long before they looked really good. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/50 "2012-01-18T00:22:54Z")
_Jurassic Park_. Great movie, but their depiction of raptors as scaly reptiles has been obsolete for over a decade. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/51 "2012-01-18T00:31:48Z")
The additional year was because the rendering hardware was so slow. Some of the very simple frames in TRON took overnight to render. Individual frames, as in “we need a couple dozen per second.” Probably why they cut some corners with Starfighter. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/52 "2012-01-18T01:30:08Z")
Yeah but would more accurate-looking raptors really help Jurassic Park? I don’t think so ---
**Author:** ![IntelliQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e99b99/32.png) [@IntelliQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IntelliQ)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/53 "2012-01-18T02:37:39Z")
[Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins (1985)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089901/combined) Total bastardization of the book series [The Destroyer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Destroyer_(fiction)). [The Quiet Earth (1985)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/combined) - Lousy effects, great story [Seconds (1966)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060955/combined) Too beatnik, could be redone in a modern way that doesnt date itself. [I, Robot](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343818/combined) Just bad, a total insult to Asimov. [Westworld (1973)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070909/combined) If done in a serious way this could be creepy. [Charly (1968)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062794/combined) Love this movie, unfortunately it pegs itself to the hippy era. Regarding previous posts -I agree with others on The Highlander. Never heard of The Lathe of Heaven until reading this thread now I’m intrigued (read a few of LeGuin’s books but not that one). ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/54 "2012-01-18T16:26:11Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Dune also springs to mind. You COULD do a really kicking (perhaps multi-part) movie about Dune and really do a great job on it these days. In case you aren’t aware of it, there’s a decent Scifi channel [miniseries of Dune](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28miniseries%29), and another one covering [Children of Dune and Dune Messiah](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert%27s_Children_of_Dune). Both are pretty faithful adaptations of the books, though otherwise they’re “good for a scifi channel miniseries” quality. I’d say they’re definitely worth watching if you’re interested in the source material. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/55 "2012-01-18T17:09:56Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > In case you aren’t aware of it, there’s a decent Scifi channel [miniseries of Dune](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28miniseries%29), and another one covering [Children of Dune and Dune Messiah](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert%27s_Children_of_Dune). Both are pretty faithful adaptations of the books, though otherwise they’re “good for a scifi channel miniseries” quality. I’d say they’re definitely worth watching if you’re interested in the source material. I disagree. I think David Lynch did a better job of exploring the ideas behind religious fanaticism, Messianic cults, and resource constraints, even if his movie was a bloated mess, otherwise. SF fans talk about “faithfulness” to the source material, but that usually means having exactly the same scenes/dialogue as the books without necessarily staying true to the intent of the authors (I have the same reservations about many of the scenes in LoTR). So, yeah, do Dune again, but properly this time. And certainly “I, Robot”. Since reboots are just as much a reflection of current events as anything, I say keep rebooting/remaking superhero movies every 10 years, just as they do now. Along those lines, while “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” is a classic, I’d like to see how much the message gets screwed up and how a writer/director would try to “enhance” the romance and boy’s camp subplots if done today. ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/56 "2012-01-18T17:30:29Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > The additional year was because the rendering hardware was so slow. Some of the very simple frames in TRON took overnight to render. Individual frames, as in “we need a couple dozen per second.” Probably why they cut some corners with Starfighter. That’s still how it works. Cars 2 took 11.5 hours per frame… [cite](http://gizmodo.com/5813587/12500-cpu-cores-were-required-to-render-cars-2) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/57 "2012-01-18T17:44:03Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Damn, that could have been amazing … > > This really calls for a new cable channel, since the logical name is both taken and then bowlderized into syfy, perhaps name it ‘possibilities’ or ‘speculations’ and do nothing but mini series of sf and fantasy novels done right, none of these sharkapalooza bullcrap movies. For premade filler, go with the classics, The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, classic SF and fantasy movies from silent era through as new as the rights can be afforded. Get some killer talking heads like AMC used to have. Toss in a few of the old newsreels about how it might be in the future. There are so many books, so little time and very few producers and directors that wouldn’t fuck the projects up … Damn, that would TOTALLY rock as an SF Channel. It would BE one. You couild aslo have current news about “futuristic” science and tech like cloning, nanotech, etc. that are in development now, with speculation about where they might take us. I would SO subscribe to that channel, and dump SyFy, though I do lurve me some giant reptile movies now and again. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/58 "2012-01-18T18:18:31Z")
_Grease_ is the word (but this time with actors who aren’t in their 30’s and 40’s) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/59 "2012-01-18T19:40:38Z")
**Howard the Duck** Maybe this time they won’t butcher a great comic book character. :smack: I’m still not sure why the original movie was such a screwed up mess. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762/60 "2012-01-18T20:10:46Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’m still not sure why the original movie was such a screwed up mess. George Lucas (especially any time after 1980 or so) screwing up a movie? Perish the thought! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-begging-to-be-remade/609762.md?page=4)