What film has been remade the most times?

Cafe Society
#1

Specifically, I mean films that have some semblance of the same script.

For example, Tarzan is the most frequently recurring character in film, but the films are so different that they can’t be considered remakes. Although Tarzan the Ape Man with Bo Derek is definitely a remake of the film of the same name with Johnny Weismuller, most of the stories of the films are unrelated. Jungle-boy meets city-girl is not enough commonality.

But I would consider two films that are attempting to be screen adaptations of the same source material to be “remakes” for the sake of this thread. In that case, Disney’s Tarzan and Greystoke can be considered versions of the same story since they both are attempting to bring Tarzan of the Apes, the book, to the screen – not just borrowing the characters.

Cartoons count. TV counts.

Films do not have to have the same title when it is obviously the same story and characters.

Change of setting is allowed, but it gets kind of subjective. For instance, I would call The Magnificent Seven a remake of The Seven Samurai. But do we call Forbidden Planet a version of The Tempest? I’m not sure.

But speaking of the bard, I’m sure that the hands-down winner is one of Shakespeare’s plays, probably Hamlet. So let’s leave Bill out.

#2

I think the 3 Musketeers has been remade lots of times in lots of languages. Many of these are faithful to the book.

#3

Good one, madmonk28

Counting TV movies and made for video (but not counting TV series) and trying to rule out erotica and sequels, I count 26 versions in the IMDB. That doesn’t include any possible versions not named “Three Musketeers.”

#4

Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde has, I know, been remade a lot. There were more than 26 versions in a list published in Famous Monster of Filmland back in the 1960s.

#5

Yeah – IMDB lists 25 matching titles. But some versions have variants – “The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde”, “Der Januskopf”, and “The Nutty Professor” (The original Jerry Lewis one).

#6

Dracula?

Maybe some Shakespeare play?

#7

IMBD lists Les Misérables, counting TV-movies and video, at 26 also. Plus, if you count the at least 3 TV mini-series, that makes it 29, I guess.

#8

eh, one of those is a documentary about the stage play, so make that 28.

#9

If you don’t include movies based on books, perhaps “Love Affair”:

“Love Affair” (1939)
“An Affair to Remember” (1957)
“Sleepless in Seattle” (1993) (only loosely based)
“Love Affair” (1994)

#10

How about Frankenstein? The problem is that there are so many variations on the theme its hard to tell which ones are really remakes and which ones are “spinoffs”.

From the IMDB, it looks as if there are at least 18 versions of “Hound of the Baskervilles”.

#11

How about Frankenstein? The problem is that there are so many variations on the theme its hard to tell which ones are really remakes and which ones are “spinoffs”. There are over 100 entries in the IMDB with the word “Frankenstein” in their titles, but of course most of them don’t match the definition we’re looking for here.

From the IMDB, it looks as if there are at least 18 versions of “Hound of the Baskervilles”.

#12

You’re right about most of the IMDB entries for Frankenstein not meeting the criteria. But it may be in the same league as Les Miserables.

This is more ambiguous than I first thought.

#13

“The Most Dangerous Game”

has been filmed at least 4 times, with VanDamme doing a rip-off even!

#14

Not MOST - that honor probably one of those already listed. Here are some otehrs that are under the category - ALOT of remakes

I count at least 22 movie versions of the Life of Lincoln - where he is the main or one of 2 main characters (cheating the thread because some aren’t so much his life as one aspect i.e. ‘Abe & Mary’ or ‘Lincoln in the War Years’ or ‘Young Lincoln’ etc. but “The Bio-story of Lincoln” movie has been made and re-made & re-made since the 1920’s)

11 versions of Pygmalion (per se) + 2 versions of My Fair lady + 10,000 movies, sitcoms and subplots that are knock offs

4 Movies about Wyatt Earp + 2 about the OK Corrall + Tombstone and infinite Westerns (& Star Trek episodes) :slight_smile:

#15

I’m quite sure it’s Romeo and Juliet. Imdb lists 44 matching titles, and that doesn’t include new spins on it a la West Side Story.

#16

The Count Of Monte Cristo may not be the winner, but it’s up there: 20 versions, according to IMDb.