Inspired by this thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=345921
What movies would you like to see remade? (Having already been remade more than once does not disqualify a movie from consideration.) And what changes, if any, would you suggest for the remake? And who would you cast?
David Cronenberg needs to remake Howard Hawks’s Monkey Business.
Tim Burton needs to remake Arsenic and Old Lace.
I keep sorta hoping someone will remake both Silent Running, and Logan’s Run.
Actually I think Silent Running still stands pretty well on its own, but it would be fun to see a more modern re-imagining of Logan’s Run.
As I’ve said before, I’d love to see a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, but faithful to the book this time. No Metalunan Mutants. No rewriting the plot to salve human vanity. No planets with holes in the crust, or turning into suns.
I’d like to see Puppet Masters remade properly, too. And I, Robot, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I’d like to see Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court remade as something that’s not a star vehicle, and a little closer to his vision.
Fredric Brown’s Arena, which has been ripped off numerous times. They gave him credit for the Star Trek episode with that title, but it’s not a good adaptation at all, (I’ve heard they were working on a similar script, and onl later found out about Brown’s story). With CGI, you could do a helluva job with this.
“Ghost Busters”
Yep… I said it… I’d love to see GB redone.
Dave Chapelle, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and (although I am not that big of a fan of hers) Sarah Silverman.
Heather Grahm in Sigourney Weaver part.
OR I’d liketo see them do a sequel based on Ackroyd’s original idea of setting it in the future where ghosts are a common nuisance and the GB are as common as exterminators.
I’d like to see one of Leone’s westerns remade staying true to the roots. One Upon a Time in the West I think could be done by Tarantino. Harrison Ford or Tom Hanks as Frank, Samuel L Jackson as Cheyene and some youngish actor like Ledger or Gyllenal as Harmonica.
(Did you know that in the 70s, a sequel to Good the Bad and Ugly was almost made with Wallach, Von Cleef and Kyle Eastwood)
Queen Kelly. (Do movies that were never totally made count?)
It’s a great story, and absolutely required in order to “get” much of Sunset Boulevard.
I’d also like to see a big splashy production of Those Damn Yankees – with Bjork as Lola or summat.
Day of the Triffids. If they followed the book at all, they’d have the perfect SF thriller.
I’d also like to see a decent version of Bye Bye Birdie – the Dick van Dyke version rewrote the script and made it stupid, while the TV version had Jason Alexander :rolleyes:
It’s been done, but unfortunately it’s not available on DVd or tape, as far as I know. I taped mine off PBS:
Unh… Cal, I’m sure you mean This Island Earth, right ?
NONE!!!
Can you gather I’m sick and tired of Hollywood’s apparent inability to create anything new anymore? 
Assuming that they’d still count as “remakes” after we all decide to pretend that the first botches/desecrations never happened: I: Robot and Starship Troopers.
Speaking of, Sunset Blvd (but kept as a period piece because there’s nothing that really translates to silent movies as an obsolete art form). It’d be a great comeback (sorry… “return”) role for a 70s/80s superstar. Even the musical wouldn’t be terrible (and a Max/Norma prequel could be downright eerie).
This thread has come up before, incidentally. I always answer Bell, Book & Candle, although this time I’ll add Desk Set (this time actually using the term “Reference Librarians” as a mega-database vendor attempts to convince a CNN like news network that this system will make anybody able to find information on anything). It would still have a pivotal question about the King of the Watusi, however.
Plan 9 From Outer Space as a serious horror film.
On second thought…nah!
“Son of Sinbad,” Howard Hughes’ Arabian Nights adventure for Dad, made back in the fifties and featuring a bevy of hot babes and tons of sexy dancing. Remade with modern constuming, or lack of it, and modern ethnic dance, but a 50s attention to plotting and set design. A Howard Hughes budget wouldn’t hurt, either. Get every hottie actress in Hollywood that can dance in on it … should be about half a dozen. And of, yeah, the requisite slavegirl auction scene, done with naked or at least mostly naked slavegirls being auctioned. And if a slavegirl or princess or three were to get captured and chained up in a dungeon, well, that would be OK, too.
Kerry Conran (Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow), who probably needs work now, ought to consider redoing some of the early talkie genre called “tech-fi”. This featured outlandish projects like tunnels under the sea (Transatlantic Tunnel) or humungous floating airfields made of concrete (F.P.1). The trouble is, they were always dull and very stingy on the special effects. Not a problem with CGI, good casting and a snappy script.
Desk Set? Nothing with Kate the Great in it should ever be remade. This almost defines “diminishing returns.”
I give you *Logan’s Run.
I’d like to see a decent (which means it’ll never happen) remake of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
I can easily imagine a decent update of Metropolis – but I think what assures its non-happening is the paucity of investers eager to finance a socialist allegory.
How ironic is it that it’s being renewed… I mean, remade… 30 years after the original?
Memoirs of an Invisible Man. Maybe this time they could actually film the book as it was written.
Amen, sister.