# 'Stand By Me' (Has Any Movie Ever Done This?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 1, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806 "2016-04-01T04:04:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/1 "2016-04-01T04:04:01Z")
I’m sure I’m not the first one to ask this, so apologies in advance but: Richard Dreyfuss was around 40 when ‘Stand By Me’ was filmed in 1986; Wil Wheaton is now about 42. They played older and younger versions of the same character. Question: why not re-film the Dreyfuss scenes with Wheaton now and edit them into the original movie? And have Wheaton redo the narration? Has any movie done something like this? ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/2 "2016-04-01T04:10:22Z")
What, exactly, would be the point? It’s going to cost money, I don’t see any benefit. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/3 "2016-04-01T04:14:21Z")
> [@JeffB](#): > > What, exactly, would be the point? It’s going to cost money, I don’t see any benefit. I guess the only point is that it would be kind of cool to have an older actor narrating the flashback story of his actual, younger self. And I can’t imagine it would cost much to hire Wil Wheaton for a couple scenes and some narration. Maybe include the re-edited version as a hook to sell a new anniversary Blu-Ray edition or something. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/4 "2016-04-01T07:51:54Z")
This is a preview reel for someone who has managed to film his younger self interviewing his older self: And, of course, what you want is vaguely similar to the movie \*Boyhood\* in which the actor of the main character is the age given in the film from the last day of first grade to the first day of college. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/5 "2016-04-01T08:21:15Z")
What you’re thinking of is what George Lucas did with Star Wars, replacing Hayden Christiansen with whoever the hell was Anakin in Return of the Jedi. Well, not exactly the same idea, but similar concept, changing the film to make it more consistent. I actually agree with you that it would be cool to reshoot the scenes with Wil Wheaton and issue it as a special, updated edition, but given how much fan hate comes from changing classics it probably would be unnecessarily controversial. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/6 "2016-04-01T08:54:23Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > What you’re thinking of is what George Lucas did with Star Wars, replacing Hayden Christiansen with whoever the hell was Anakin in Return of the Jedi. Well, not exactly the same idea, but similar concept, changing the film to make it more consistent. > > I actually agree with you that it would be cool to reshoot the scenes with Wil Wheaton and issue it as a special, updated edition, but given how much fan hate comes from changing classics it probably would be unnecessarily controversial. I came in here to post the _Star Wars_ incident but you beat me to it. I don’t think that the reshoot was controversial in and of itself; the problem is that Lucas then withdrew the original version. If he had instead kept the original version in circulation, or better yet allowed viewers the choice of which version to see (which is trivial to implement on DVD and later media formats), it probably would have been seen as a nice, “Oh look, that’s cool!”-type bonus. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/7 "2016-04-01T09:11:00Z")
Ah, good point. Lucas did handle that with a lot of arrogance. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/8 "2016-04-01T09:25:31Z")
I’m sure Wil Wheaton isn’t in any hurry to involve himself in yet another thing that will make people hate him. But I agree that it would be an interesting thing to do. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/9 "2016-04-01T13:50:12Z")
Aside from George Lucas screwing with his own creations (and the people who tinkered with Ernie Fosselius’ _Hardware Wars_ in response), I don’t know of too many cases where anyone went back and made changes in older movies. One case where they did was the 1950 movie **Rocketship X-M** , which was rushed into production to “scoop” the George Pal/Robert Heinlein movie **Destination Moon**. As a result, the effects were rushed. So in the 1970s, Kansas City distributor Wade Williams bought the rights and re-did the special effects, putting in new miniature shots to take the place of the overused V-2 footage. > [@](#): > > Rocketship X-M was rushed to market to be in theaters before the more lavishly produced but delayed Destination Moon that was finally released 25 days later. A lack of both time and budget forced RX-M 's producers to omit special effects scenes and substitute stock footage of V-2 rocket launches and flight to complete some sequences that otherwise would have been made using the Rocketship X-M special effects miniature. The V-2 inserts created very noticeable continuity issues.[3] > > In the 1970s the rights to Rocketship X-M were acquired by Kansas City film exhibitor, movie theater owner (and later video distributor) Wade Williams, who set about re-shooting some of RX-M 's special effects scenes in order to improve the film’s overall continuity.[3] The VHS tape, LaserDisc and DVD releases incorporate this re-shot footage. Williams funded the production of new RX-M footage to replace the stock V-2 shots and missing scenes. The new footage was produced for Wade Williams Productions by Bob Burns III, his wife Kathy, former Disney designer/artist Tom Scherman, Academy Award winner Dennis Muren, Emmy Award nominee Michael Minor, and Academy Award winner Robert Skotak. Costumes were re-made that closely replicated those worn by the film’s explorers, and a new, screen accurate Rocketship X-M effects miniature was built.[3] > > The new replacement shots consist of the RX-M flying through space; it landing tail first on the Red Planet; a different shot of the crew heading away from the RX-M to explore the stark Martian surface; the surviving explorers quickly returning to their nearby spaceship; and the RX-M later blasting off from Mars into space. These six replacement shots were filmed near Los Angeles in color, then converted to black-and-white and re-tinted where necessary to match the original film footage. (Unlike the DVD release, the earlier laser disc of Rocketship X-M contains extra bonus material documenting the making of the film and the creation of this new footage.) The film’s production and the making of these new scenes were also presented in RX-M feature articles in both Starlog magazine and later expanded in the first issue (1979) of Starlog’s spin-off magazine CineMagic. Prints of the original theatrical release version of RX-M are still stored in Williams’ Kansas City film vaults.[3] They have not been converted to a home video format. > > Rocketship X-M is not in the public domain. A copyright renewal for the film was registered under Certificate # R 678 491 from the Copyright Office, Library of Congress.[4] > > Rocketship X-M is available on-line at both YouTube and at the Internet Moving Image Archive.[5] This later print contains a mixture of both original Lippert footage (“lab splices” made for movie theater 35mm reel change cues and V-2 stock footage can be seen), as well as all six of Williams’ new scenes. This version also retains Lippert’s original pinkish-red tinting.[3] The LaserDisc and DVD releases from Image Entertainment have a brighter red tinting. > > Image’s 50th Anniversary DVD release (2000), under license from Williams, is oddly missing two of his re-filmed Mars scenes: > > Lippert’s original matte painting scene, which has tiny matted-in figures leaving an obviously painted RX-M, is retained instead of the Williams’ re-shot replacement scene that has the five explorers heading away from a convincing RX-M effects miniature standing on a barren Martian plain. A new bridging scene, set at the end of the Mars sequence, showing the surviving explorers hurriedly returning to the RX-M, is also missing from Image’s DVD. > **[Rocketship X-M](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketship_X-M)** > > Rocketship X-M (a.k.a. Expedition Moon and originally Rocketship Expedition Moon) is a 1950 American black-and-white science fiction film from Lippert Pictures, the first outer space adventure of the post-World War II era. The film was produced and directed by Kurt Neumann and stars Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery Jr., Hugh O'Brian, and Morris Ankrum. > Rocketship X-M tells the story of a Moon expedition gone awry. Through a series of unforeseen events, the expedition's crew find... Besides that, some fan (I assume) re0made the opening titles for **The Day the Earth Stood Still** in color. Not only do we get color galaxies and nebulae, but the shots as we approach the moon no longer show those unscientific clouds in outer space (although the maker of this might not have even had that in mind – he just used available Apollo photos, not noticing that they fixed an inaccuracy): For reference, here's the original opening. Note the "space clouds" at 1:30 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/40F0LxGEY-Y/hqdefault.jpg "The Day The Earth Stood Still Title 1951") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40F0LxGEY-Y) As for cases where actors reprise roles at different ages using older footage, the most relevant example I can think of is the episode “The Days Dwindle Down” from the TV series _Murder, She Wrote_, where they used scenes from the 1949 movie _Strange Bargain_ for the flashback scenes of this 1987 episode of the TV series, and got actors Harry Morgan, Jeffrey Lynn, and Martha Scott to reprise their original roles (new actors played the parts of actors who had died, including a pre-_Titanic_ Gloria Stuart taking the deceased Katherine Emery’s role.) > **["Murder, She Wrote" The Days Dwindle Down (TV Episode 1987) ⭐ 8.3 | Crime,...](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0653638/)** > > 47m | TV-PG ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/10 "2016-04-01T14:05:57Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > As for cases where actors reprise roles at different ages using older footage, the most relevant example I can think of is the episode “The Days Dwindle Down” from the TV series _Murder, She Wrote_, where they used scenes from the 1949 movie _Strange Bargain_ for the flashback scenes of this 1987 episode of the TV series, and got actors Harry Morgan, Jeffrey Lynn, and Martha Scott to reprise their original roles (new actors played the parts of actors who had died, including a pre-_Titanic_ Gloria Stuart taking the deceased Katherine Emery’s role.) > > ["Murder, She Wrote" The Days Dwindle Down (TV Episode 1987) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0653638/) Ed Asner reprised his role as a smuggler in the original Hawaii Five-0 in I think two episodes of the current version. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/11 "2016-04-01T14:21:55Z")
That sure would be interesting to do with Back to the Future. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/12 "2016-04-01T14:36:01Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > Ed Asner reprised his role as a smuggler in the original Hawaii Five-0 in I think two episodes of the current version. In the **Deep Space Nine** episode “Blood Oath” (1994) they got Michael Ansara, John Colicos, and William Campbel (who’d played Klingon commanders in the original 1960s TV series) to reprise their roles as Kor, Kang, and Koloth. They got Ansara back as Kang in the **Star Trek Voyager** episode “Flashback” two years later. Actually, there are plenty of cases of getting actors back to reprise roles, or appear in cameos. But my referencing the “Murder She Wrote” episode was MORE than this – they actually used the old movie footage in the episode. I don’t think most cases of reprising roles (like the Ed Asner case or thiese Klingon cases) qualify on that score. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/13 "2016-04-01T15:06:12Z")
Before Nimoy, Kelly, and Doohan passed, they could have re-shot/inserted at least one “phase” of the crew aging in TOS “The Deadly Years”…but then they’d have to explain why Kirk got so fat…and then lost all that weight 😉 Likewise they could have re-shot Dustin Hoffman and re-inserted scenes in “Little Big Man”…but Dustin hardly ages ! ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/14 "2016-04-01T15:08:57Z")
Something else just occurred to me: I believe in the original Stephen King short story, the Wil Wheaton character, as an adult, runs into Ace, the character played by Keifer Sutherland. Maybe film a brief scene between them for a really cool and updated finale! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/15 "2016-04-01T15:40:55Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > As for cases where actors reprise roles at different ages using older footage, the most relevant example I can think of is the episode “The Days Dwindle Down” from the TV series _Murder, She Wrote_, where they used scenes from the 1949 movie _Strange Bargain_ for the flashback scenes of this 1987 episode of the TV series, and got actors Harry Morgan, Jeffrey Lynn, and Martha Scott to reprise their original roles (new actors played the parts of actors who had died, including a pre-_Titanic_ Gloria Stuart taking the deceased Katherine Emery’s role.) **Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?** shows a couple of early Bette Davis movies to illustrate Baby Jane’s failed movie career (they were roles Davis had cited as her worst). **Mad Wednesday/The Sin of Harold Diddlebock** used footage from Harold Lloyd’s **The Freshman** as part of Diddlebock’s (played by Lloyd) past. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/16 "2016-04-01T15:54:39Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > Likewise they could have re-shot Dustin Hoffman and re-inserted scenes in “Little Big Man”…but Dustin hardly ages ! I was thinking that is the problem with the Wheaton role too. He’s stayed too boyish for the role of him at this age. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/17 "2016-04-01T15:59:02Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Something else just occurred to me: I believe in the original Stephen King short story, the Wil Wheaton character, as an adult, runs into Ace, the character played by Keifer Sutherland. Maybe film a brief scene between them for a really cool and updated finale! And throw Jerry O’Connell and Corey Feldman in there as a bonus. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/18 "2016-04-01T16:06:12Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > What you’re thinking of is what George Lucas did with Star Wars, replacing Hayden Christiansen with whoever the hell was Anakin in Return of the Jedi. You’ve got that 100% backwards. Sebastian Shaw was **replaced by** Hayden Christiansen ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/19 "2016-04-01T17:28:21Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?** shows a couple of early Bette Davis movies to illustrate Baby Jane’s failed movie career (they were roles Davis had cited as her worst). In the _ **Columbo** _ episode “Forgotten Lady,” Janet Leigh’s character watches movies of herself (i.e., Janet Leigh) from the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806/20 "2016-04-01T17:37:40Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > And throw Jerry O’Connell and Corey Feldman in there as a bonus. With, perhaps, a picture of John Cusack somewhere in the scene. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stand-by-me-has-any-movie-ever-done-this/750806.md?page=2)