# What Movies SHOULD Be Remade? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571 "2009-01-09T19:49:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/41 "2009-01-10T00:55:05Z")
The Spirit. It could be done well. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/42 "2009-01-10T01:05:12Z")
The Last Unicorn was once upon a time scheduled to be made starring Mia Farrow and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Molly and Schmendrick the Magician. It truly, truly broke my heart when the deal fell apart, I know the animated version is still much loved, but how hard could it be to get this thing made? There’s CGI, they could put a damn horn on a beautiful white Arabian horse. Can’t they let Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler sit it out for a year, if it’s because of money? Or is the fantasy market all tapped out? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/43 "2009-01-10T01:19:39Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Basically, just remake old, crappy movies that no one remembers. Movies like Oceans Eleven, The Italian Job or The Thomas Crown Affair. Okay, perfect. Let’s get the CGI machine cranking on _F.P. 1 Doesn’t Answer_, a 1932 clunker that was a very early attempt at science fiction (intrigue aboard a giant concrete aircraft carrier) but pulled its punches on the story (too much talk, too little action or special effects). Load it up with period airplanes and music, wisecracking humor and biff-pow action - everything _Sky Captain_ promised but was too nerd-oriented to deliver. It could inspire a cult following! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/44 "2009-01-10T01:49:24Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Okay, perfect. Let’s get the CGI machine cranking on _F.P. 1 Doesn’t Answer_, a 1932 clunker that was a very early attempt at science fiction (intrigue aboard a giant concrete aircraft carrier) but pulled its punches on the story (too much talk, too little action or special effects). Load it up with period airplanes and music, wisecracking humor and biff-pow action - everything _Sky Captain_ promised but was too nerd-oriented to deliver. It could inspire a cult following! I’ve never heard of it so sure!! Go with it! Someone mentioned [Logan’s Run](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0402344/). ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/45 "2009-01-10T01:55:26Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > Movies that were bad the first time around, not ones that were good the first time around. I nominate **Bless The Child**. It would be neat if the remake had, I don’t know, something to do with the source material. ---
**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 10, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/46 "2009-01-10T01:57:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Sorry Cal, but it is a George R.R. Martin story :smack: dammit. I knew that. So’s **Nightflyers** , for that matter (I just read it) ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/47 "2009-01-10T02:09:32Z")
I’d like to see a remake of Maltese Falcon. ---
**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 10, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/48 "2009-01-10T02:26:04Z")
> [@](#): > > I’d like to see a remake of Maltese Falcon. Go ahead – there alreay are two: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022111/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022111/) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028219/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028219/) Three if you count this: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065069/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065069/) But a remake seems pretty pointless to me, after the Bogary/Greenstreet/Lorre version. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/49 "2009-01-10T03:54:40Z")
> [@Asylum](#): > > _North by Northwest_. The original movie was great: it had excellent pacing and a good plot. But I would’ve enjoyed it more if it was set in the present day. I think the original story would adapt well to the present day, plus, special effects have improved since then. The entire time I watched that movie I was thinking to myself “I want to know what happens next (and a modern version of this would make bank)!”. I was thinking **Rope** might be the best Hitchcock film to remake. I love the original, but a remake would be interesting without the gimmicky camera techniques. They could get away with a much larger gay subplot today. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/50 "2009-01-10T03:57:31Z")
> [@Umbriel2](#): > > [The Monolith Monsters](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050720/) Oh. My. God. This HAS to be the movie that I so vividly remember watching on TV one Saturday afternoon when I was a kid. I have for so long tried to find the name, and have so often gotten “Wha?” from anyone I asked, I was starting to think I’d imagined the whole thing. **Umbriel2** , I can now die a happy woman. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/51 "2009-01-10T19:14:22Z")
Two that need to be redone according to the original text: [Johnny Mnemonic](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113481/) needs the ‘technical boy’ speech, the unfinished dome over New York, and the razorgirl/ninja fight on the Lo-Tek’s killing floor. [The High Crusade](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110024/) by Poul Anderson is NOT a stupid comedy! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/52 "2009-01-10T20:57:20Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > The Third Man could be done again and done well. Why? It is very nearly a perfect movie, and a great cynical post-war counterpart to the button-pushing saccharine optimism of _Casablanca_ (typified by the location shots in the streets of bombed out Vienna and dynamic cinematography versus the flat, isolated sets and static camerawork of the latter). And I can’t think of a modern combination of actors who would play against each other was well as Joseph Cotton, Trevor Howard, and Orson Welles. Welles’ ferris wheel speech (“Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax - the only way you can save money nowadays,”) written by the actor, is iconic. I suppose you could adapt the story to another setting, but I don’t really see any use in remaking it just for the sake of updating that effects or putting modern names above the title. There are, however, other Graham Greene works that could be readapted like _The Comedians_ , _The Man Within_, or _The Ministry of Fear_. The readaptation of _The Quiet American_ was vastly superior to the first adaptation of that novel. > [@Nom\_de\_Plume](#): > > I would love to see a version of “Fletch” with a lead character that was ANYTHING like the one from the books. I mean, Chevy Chase was funny, but the character he played was NOT Fletch. Agreed, that, as long as they ignore the later books. However, I suspect the title and character have become inexorably intertwined with the Chevy Chase schtick in the minds of the general public, and an interpretation of the character closer to that in the books would be a disappointment to viewers expecting a mindless slapstick comedy. However, I’ll note that there is an [entry for _Fletch Won_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275354/) (of uncertain production status) on [IMDb.com](http://IMDb.com). Stranger ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/53 "2009-01-11T01:25:58Z")
Dinner at Eight is on TCM tonight, how about this one? Set in the depression, it features social climbers, an ambitious floozy, an elderly down-on-her-luck former actress, an alcoholic, broke, has-been actor. Now that we are a hair away from another depression, it’s still relevant, and characters like those never go out of style. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/54 "2009-01-11T01:51:37Z")
I am pessimistic, but I have not quite give up hope that someone somewhere can come up with a cinematic version of **Dune** that doesn’t suck and stays faithful to the book. Maybe animated in the style of [Defiance](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386741/) to heighten the cerebral and surreal aspects. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/55 "2009-01-11T02:41:13Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Why? It is very nearly a perfect movie, and a great cynical post-war counterpart to the button-pushing saccharine optimism of _Casablanca_ (typified by the location shots in the streets of bombed out Vienna and dynamic cinematography versus the flat, isolated sets and static camerawork of the latter). And I can’t think of a modern combination of actors who would play against each other was well as Joseph Cotton, Trevor Howard, and Orson Welles. Welles’ ferris wheel speech (“Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax - the only way you can save money nowadays,”) written by the actor, is iconic. I suppose you could adapt the story to another setting, but I don’t really see any use in remaking it just for the sake of updating that effects or putting modern names above the title. > > There are, however, other Graham Greene works that could be readapted like _The Comedians_ , _The Man Within_, or _The Ministry of Fear_. The readaptation of _The Quiet American_ was vastly superior to the first adaptation of that novel. > > Agreed, that, as long as they ignore the later books. However, I suspect the title and character have become inexorably intertwined with the Chevy Chase schtick in the minds of the general public, and an interpretation of the character closer to that in the books would be a disappointment to viewers expecting a mindless slapstick comedy. However, I’ll note that there is an [entry for _Fletch Won_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275354/) (of uncertain production status) on [IMDb.com](http://IMDb.com). > > Stranger Well, yeah… it [The Third Man] wouldn’t work as one of those hideous “try to do the original again” things like Psycho. But you could take some of the core elements of the plot. Writer lands in Europe in search of a friend. He’s told his friend is dead. But the story seems odd. Was it really an accident? Do the stories not gel well? What was his friend up to anyway? etc. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/56 "2009-01-11T02:55:34Z")
I think\*\* Six String Samurai \*\*is a good candidate. It’s a great film in a way but the sound and general budget let it down. It should either be remade with a decent budget or should be done as a graphic novel. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/57 "2009-01-11T04:17:50Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > It’s high time for another adaptation of _A Christmas Carol_ > > Kudos to the contemporary crew that can pull off the combo of glurge and terror that that story is. > > -FrL- Robert Zemeckis is doing it CGI style with Jim Carrey. Will be either wonderful or horrible. I fear the latter. My entries- THE FOUNTAINHEAD (Brad Pitt & Oliver Stone both are toying with this idea.) And I’m serious on this one- Samuel L. Jackson as Prince Mamuwalde, with a cameo by Gary Oldman in BRAM STOKER’S BLACULA. make that BLAM STOKER’S BLACULA. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/58 "2009-01-13T12:13:41Z")
Thought of another one: [The Warriors](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080120/), a cult film from the 70’s. The concept is great, and the gang violence is pretty compelling, but there are also some distracting flaws in the execution: the extremely dated costumes, hair styles, and look of New York; the overwrought “Warriors, come out and play!” sequence; and some depictions of blacks that border on “blaxpliotation.” Done with modern filmmaking techniques, it could be awesome! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/59 "2009-01-13T12:28:04Z")
Yes to **Tron** , yes to **the Warriors**. no to another **The Italian Job** remake. The original with Michael Caine is a classic, I’ll have you know. **Constantine** needs a remake with an actual British person, a much darker script, the name pronounced correctly and with Keanu Reeves locked in a small box in Madagascar until filming is completed (or, you know, whenever someone feels like letting him out). ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571/60 "2009-01-13T13:20:49Z")
I said this once before in a previous thread: **Sunset Boulevard** only with nudity. The original, great as it is, was forced by the standards of the era to minimize the fact that Bill Holden’s character was sexing Gloria Swanson’s character. The modern remake should feature an aging female star as Miss Desmond. She should obviously be past the first flower of youth while still having a fap-worthy body…which we should get to see frequently in hot (softcore) sex scenes. There are many women in Hollywood whom I can see being great in the role. Who to replace Bill Holden, though? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-should-be-remade/480571.md?page=4)