# Movies that could be improved in a remake **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 24, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288 "2010-02-24T18:50:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/41 "2010-02-26T07:06:20Z")
> [@BigFatTabbyDave](#): > > I’d love to see a movie of The Long Walk too, but I’d imagine that I’m pissing into the wind on that one! Frank Darabont (_Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile,_ and _The Mist_) has optioned the film rights, so this one’s not outside the realm of possibility. On the other hand, in today’s climate, it’s highly unlikely that [_The Man Without a Face_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_man_without_a_face) will ever get an authentic film treatment (one of the rare cases where changing the source material actually improved the story, IMO.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/42 "2010-02-26T07:25:39Z")
Speaking of Stephen King adaptations, I’ve never been able to decide whether the ending of the _Apt Pupil_ movie was a disappointment, or even **more** chilling than the book’s. ---
**Author:** ![Kylede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@Kylede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kylede)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/43 "2010-02-26T07:35:58Z")
the funny part is that I was discussing this topic with a friend recently and discovered this thread today. ok I think we can all agree, we woudl like our favorite sci-fi redone with better effect or more fidelity to the source work. But what about redoing something popular for the time but updating it. Such as the classic “Road to …” movies with Bing Crosby, Bob Hoep and Dorothy Lamour. These movie were made back when hollywood was whiter then the 3 day snowstorm we are getting in NYC right now. You could remake them with a little diversity. All you would need is a crooner with some comic acting chops (Harry Conick would be perfect) for the Crosby role, and an ad lib comic (I would love to see George Lopez do this) and someone sufficently slinky and HOT, with a voice to match (Queen Latifah, she can sing, and she is hot, and she could show hollywood someone over 25 is a sexy symbol). The movies were all parodies of either dramatic or adventure genre’s of the time, so some up to date parodies woudl have to be written. Maybe Kevin Smith could come on board to write one ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/44 "2010-02-26T07:42:51Z")
> [@BigFatTabbyDave](#): > > That’s been my #1 remake choice for a good twenty years. Arnie’s version was fun, but there’s an insanely good movie waiting to be be made of that novel. Sadly, the ending would have to be changed these days ☹ > > I’d love to see a movie of The Long Walk too, but I’d imagine that I’m pissing into the wind on that one! I was also thinking long walk - but there may be too many elements that would have to be cut to make it to some form of G rating to make it worthwhile. Running Man I would also love to see remade more faithful to the book. Some of the George Stark material may be interesting… And RAGE would be great… ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/45 "2010-02-26T07:48:34Z")
> [@Stuffy](#): > > I forgot it ended that way, for some reason that story and the Long Walk are linked together in my head like a double feature or something. I read the four Bachman books within the one novel, Running Man, Rage, Long Walk and (the fourth I can’t remember now)… ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/46 "2010-02-26T07:51:21Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And what made Twain think armored knights could cover a given number of miles faster on bicycles than on horses? Remember, we’re talking bicycles, not motorcycles. You don’t have to periodically stop bicycles to rest, feed, and water them. Also, bicycles don’t rear up and dismount their riders. Anyway, since we’re talking about Twain, there has yet to be a truly definitive film version of “Huckleberry Finn.” ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/47 "2010-02-26T07:57:01Z")
“Grand Prix”. The racing scenes are to die for but the plot is as soggy as cornflakes soaked in milk for three days. But you could never get the cooperation of the F1 teams and drivers like Frankenheimer did in 1966. “Days of Thunder” Harry Hyde, the inspiration for the Robert Duvall character, said he gave the directors a whole lot of material and they ignored it to write what they wanted to. Could somebody do a grittier version of “Flyboys” with more of a “Dawn Patrol” sense of despair? My father used to wonder if the Gary Cooper portrayal of “Sergeant York” was really all that accurate. There has to be a better version of The Iliad than the Brad Pitt monstrosity “Troy”. Or “Alexander” made by somebody without Oliver Stone’s diseased brain. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/48 "2010-02-26T08:09:05Z")
> [@Stuffy](#): > > I forgot it ended that way, for some reason that story and the Long Walk are linked together in my head like a double feature or something. They were sometimes combined into one thick volume, along with _Thinner_, as “The Bachmann Books”. Maybe that’s why? ETA: Damnit, I swear those other replies weren’t there. I’d like a remake of Dracula, without all this undying romance bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/49 "2010-02-26T08:37:59Z")
Would it be possible to do a film about John Paul Jones (American revolution sailor, not Led Zeppelin drummer that choked on his vomit)? There was a movie from the 1950s with Robert Stack that is alright but a film of its time. But it does have Bette Davis as Catherine the Great which could not be improved on. Nowadays they’d get somebody truly wretched like Meryl Streep. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/50 "2010-02-26T10:19:50Z")
_Public Enemies._ Seriously. The book gives you John Dillinger, Alvin Karpis & the Barker Gang, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie & Clyde, Vern Miller, The Kansas City Massacre, & more. The movie gives you Johnny Depp. :rolleyes: Why did they even bother buying the rights to the book? ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/51 "2010-02-26T10:38:06Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > I read the four Bachman books within the one novel, > > Running Man, Rage, Long Walk and (the fourth I can’t remember now)… I thought it was Apt Pupil but looking it up it was Road Work. > [@MrDibble](#): > > They were sometimes combined into one thick volume, along with _Thinner_, as “The Bachmann Books”. Maybe that’s why? Thinner was his first hardcover novel as Richard Bachman. Shortly after that he release four novellas as The Bachman Books. He pulled Rage after Columbine, and I imagine The Running Man is just as dead thanks to 9/11. In hindsight those novellas had a real Nostradamus vibe going for them. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2010, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/52 "2010-02-26T12:19:31Z")
> [@Scruff](#): > > How about **Doc Savage**? There was an OK movie way back, but which was very much in the camp/tongue-in-cheek style of the Adam West “Batman” movie. > > You could make a decent version of it now; darker, perhaps and set in the 1930s. > Of course, I could have been influenced by the fact that I just unpacked a box of books after the move, and found the “Doc Savage” Bantam reprints from the 1960s 😃 I loved those, and keep buying them when I can find them, and also the 70s reprints as well. I hate the camped up movie with Ron Ely … I would love to see a nice 30s noir version, NOT updated but kept to the original. It would still be a little steampunkish because of the inventions, but that isn’t too bad. Now for the casting … trite but Brendan Fraser pops into mind for Doc, he has almost the size [Doc is 6’8", and Fraser is 6’3", but that never stopped Hollywood before.] not sure of anybody else though. That would be its own thread =) ---
**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:** [February 26, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/53 "2010-02-26T12:27:18Z")
> [@](#): > > And what made Twain think armored knights could cover a given number of miles faster on bicycles than on horses? Remember, we’re talking bicycles, not motorcycles. I’m sure he wasn’t thinking along the lines of the efficiency of bicycle travel vs. horse (in 6th century, unpaved-road England). To my mind, Twain was clearly thinking of the comic impact of seeing a troop of armored knights mounted on bicycles. And it is, seen in the mind’s eye – it’s high time we realized it on-screen. As for the other stuff – come on, nobody would deaden a movie with a discussion of economics. I think the episode of the rescued princesses would be a hoot (“and he _married_ her?” “She got better”.). You’d have to tone down Twain’s anti-Catholic prejudices and I’d cut out a lot of the grosser elements, but a lot of the stuff is priceless, and moving. That the items you cite stand out as the most memorable are ones I find much less important to the story and infinitely less likely to find its way into a film (God knows they haven’t shown up in any filmed version yet made) says much, I think, about our respective feelings for Connecticut Yankee as a likely subject for film. And I take back what I said about no one else poking as much fun at the Time Traveler as at the times – despite the heavy slapstick, the movie **Army of Darkness** manages to skewer Ashe as much as the medievals he lands among. ---
**Author:** ![halfliquid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@halfliquid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/halfliquid)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/54 "2010-02-26T14:02:57Z")
I would love to see _The Fountainhead_ remade. I liked the cast except for Gary Cooper. Off topic: It’d be nice if someone would make _Atlas Shrugged_ into a good movie. It would be fun to see what Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino would do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/55 "2010-02-26T14:32:20Z")
I may get some flack for this, but _Highlander_. The first one. The concept - a bunch of swordsmen fighting each other throughout the ages before converging on modern-day NY for a final showdown - is solid gold, but the execution, IMHO, was mediocre at best. Think how good the film would be in the hands of a competent director and headed by an actor capable of playing a Scotsman, or at least able to have both of his eyes look in the same direction at the same time (seriously: whenever anyone tries to tell me about the inherent superiority of French cinema, I remind them that they also made Christopher Lambert a star; man makes Keanu Reeves look like Sean fucking Penn). ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/56 "2010-02-26T14:36:52Z")
Even ignoring all that, I can’t sit through Highlander nowadays because that soundtrack is unlistenable. I’m down with a full Higlander remake, but short of that I wish someone would reissue it with a less dated soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/57 "2010-02-26T17:01:17Z")
Oh, two more: Dungeons & Dragons (but better this time) and Ladyhawke (with a new soundtrack, please) ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/58 "2010-02-26T17:21:06Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Would it be possible to do a film about John Paul Jones (American revolution sailor, not Led Zeppelin drummer that choked on his vomit)? There was a movie from the 1950s with Robert Stack that is alright but a film of its time. But it does have Bette Davis as Catherine the Great which could not be improved on. Nowadays they’d get somebody truly wretched like Meryl Streep. John Paul Jones is alive and well. John Bonham was the drummer for Led Zeppelin. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/59 "2010-02-26T17:37:52Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > John Paul Jones is alive and well. John Bonham was the drummer for Led Zeppelin. Oops, bad mistake out of me. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288/60 "2010-02-26T17:41:05Z")
[Gummo (1997)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119237/) could be greatly enhanced with a new theme, a new plot, a new cast, and anything else that might help it evaporate into the ether so that even its name would no longer bring back the vile and disgusting images cluttering my brain from having seen it purely by chance on some late night cable channel when I was transfixed to the point of being unable to reach the remote to get it out of my misery. If ever there was a need for UNDO in the movie world, this is it! Sadly there’s a look-alike for one of the characters that I keep seeing in other places. Even that is scary and repugnant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-be-improved-in-a-remake/530288.md?page=4)