# Remakes That COULD Work
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 29, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967 "2007-05-29T18:41:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/1 "2007-05-29T18:41:08Z")
If Follywood didn’t screw them up. I know that it’s fashionable to dis on remakes, but occassionally, Follywood gets it right. _The Maltese Falcon_ being a prime example of a remake that worked perfectly. I think that a properly done remake of _Apocalypse Now_ set in modern day Iraq could work, if given the right cast, director, and script. Of course, Follywood would probably blow it, and the thing would play like _Mission: Impossible: IV_. What are some films that you think are ripe for a remake, if only Follywood wouldn’t fuck them up?
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### Author:  [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/2 "2007-05-29T18:43:27Z")
The Omega Man… No wait do a sequel. Survuivors fight off Cloaked Albinos in a post apocalyptic world that stopped progressing after 1975. Yeeeesssh The nightmares!
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/3 "2007-05-29T18:47:31Z")
A more faithful rendering of Stephen King’s _The Running Man_ could be pretty cool – especially in this era of reality television.
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### Author:  [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/4 "2007-05-29T18:55:49Z")
**kingpengvin** , you know a new version of\*\* I Am Legend \*\* comes out this year, right?
I want to see \*\*Greatest American Hero \*\* as a movie. Desperately.
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### Author:  [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/5 "2007-05-29T18:59:11Z")
[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach]
I want to see \*\*Greatest American Hero \*\* as a movie. Desperately.
[/QUOTE]
That’s exactly what I was going to say. I recently purchased the GAH DVD set- the episodes have held up fairly well, but if there was ever any show that needed to be remade, it’d have to be that one.
Supposedly, there was a movie in the works a few years ago, but it must’ve stalled out.
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### Author:  [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/6 "2007-05-29T19:57:06Z")
I wanna see a remake of the 1931 Spanish-language **Dracula** , with Bela Lugosi playing Drac. But I guess I’m never going to see that–or could one Wise in the Ways of Photoshop make one?
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/7 "2007-05-29T20:18:27Z")
[QUOTE=Rocketeer]
I wanna see a remake of the 1931 Spanish-language **Dracula** , with Bela Lugosi playing Drac. But I guess I’m never going to see that–or could one Wise in the Ways of Photoshop make one?
[/QUOTE]
There was talk of using a computer generated Bruce Lee to make an entirely new film. No idea of what happened to it, though. Computer tech is rapidly approaching the point where doing something like this would be possible for the home user.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/8 "2007-05-29T20:30:20Z")
Hollywood occasionally DOES get it right. The 1950s version of **Moby Dick** was infinitely better than the silent **The Sea Beast**.
I’d like to see them do **I, Robot** right. Despite the naysayers, I think Ellison’s script would be very filmable (especially with CGI). It has the approval of Asiomov himself. It certainly couldn’t be worse than the recent supposed version.
Or Heinlein’s **The Puppet Masters**.
I’ve wanted to do Fredric Brown’s **Arena** myself (ripped off many times, and ostensibly done as a Star Trek TOS episode). It could be extremely powerful, if done right.
And most of all I’d like to see Mark Twain’s **A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court** done with at the very least an attempt to translate Twain’s book onto the screen – and not make it a star vehicle or shoehorn it into an implausible version of a Politically Correct rewrite.
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### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/9 "2007-05-29T20:54:55Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan]
I think that a properly done remake of _Apocalypse Now_ set in modern day Iraq could work, if given the right cast, director, and script.
[/QUOTE]
Well, one gulf war ago was _Three Kings_. Seems to be slightly related to _Apocalypse Now_, if not a remake.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/10 "2007-05-29T21:01:31Z")
I could see Damon/Affleck/DiCaprio re doing an old Film Noir. Maybe The Third Man or Double Indemnity. Lindsey Lohan could channel her own life to redo Valley of the Dolls. And I’d love to see what they could do with movies that are dialogue driven rather then action driven. Think African Queen
A few others I’d like to see
It Happened One Night
And…well I had a few others in mind, but so many of them, haven’t been redone, per se, but such similar movies have been done since, I don’t know that it would be worth it.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/11 "2007-05-29T21:25:47Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
…Or Heinlein’s **The Puppet Masters** …
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think Hollywood is ready to keep the compulsory nudity from the novel intact.
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/12 "2007-05-29T21:53:04Z")
Hollywood filmmaking need not be our only method for getting a movie made.
I think if we know for a fact an audience exists for a given movie concept, it need not be financed through Hollywood as we have a fine tradition of independent film, Bollywood, Hong Kong cinema and internet movies.
I think a number of early films have the potential to be remade: frankly, I think the internet would be a fine medium to bring back two forgotten forms; serial adventures shorts and radio plays.
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### Author:  [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/13 "2007-05-29T22:11:07Z")
Lillian Hellman’s play “The Children’s Hour” has been filmed at least twice (in a bowdlerized version in 1936 as [These Three](http://imdb.com/title/tt0028356/) and in 1961 as [The Children’s Hour](http://imdb.com/title/tt0054743/). I think a remake could be very powerful, and these days the filmmakers would not need to tiptoe around the subject matter.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/14 "2007-05-29T22:49:38Z")
**Tuckerfan** , who is this Follywood you keep talking about? You seem pretty pissed at him. Is he some kind of inept, Gilligan-like crewmember who screws up every remake ever in existence. Why, there’s been remakes of movies since the aughts, he must be some ancient old man now. How could you have such disdain for the elderly?
For shame, **Tuckerfan** , for shame.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/15 "2007-05-29T23:41:41Z")
I always thought the George Romero movie [The Crazies](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069895/) was a film that was just screaming for a bigger budget treatment.
Oh wait, [nevermind.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455407/)
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/16 "2007-05-29T23:55:20Z")
I have some great ideas if somebody wants to fund remakes of **Star Wars I-III**. And **VI** for that matter. 😃
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/17 "2007-05-30T00:06:55Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin]
The Omega Man… No wait do a sequel. Survuivors fight off Cloaked Albinos in a post apocalyptic world that stopped progressing after 1975. Yeeeesssh The nightmares!
[/QUOTE]
[Ask and ye shall receive.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_%28film%29)
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/18 "2007-05-30T02:52:15Z")
There’s a remake of _Sleuth_ coming out later this year; directed by Kenneth Branagh, screenplay by Harold Pinter, starring Jude Law and…
Michael Caine.
Now, the original was amazing (might even be worth a thread of its own) and it didn’t really need to be remade, but there just might be enough talent behind this new version to pull it off.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/19 "2007-05-30T03:13:49Z")
[QUOTE=Askia]
(snip)
as we have a fine tradition
(snip)
Bollywood,
[/QUOTE]
Bwahahaha. I am the World’s Biggest Fan of Bollywood and yet those two phrases do _not_ go together.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-that-could-work/405967/20 "2007-05-30T03:40:59Z")
I’ve always thought [Race with the Devil](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073600/) was just screaming for a bigger budget treatment with more gore and nudity.
Oh wait, [nevermind.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454924/)
:rolleyes:
Fuck! Is there a horror movie from the 70s that _hasn’t_ already been remade or is in the development stage of being remade?
At this point, I totally expect _Blackenstein Returns_ to be in theaters by 2008.
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