# Which movies should be remade? My nomination--Tommy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342 "2003-06-12T15:15:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342/41 "2003-06-13T13:13:48Z")
they could remake this old film called swept away, and have madonna in it. i think that could be a big hit on both sides of the atlantic due to the acting ability shes displayed in the past. perhaps her husband could be involved in some way, as a director? or maybe get carter? someone like sylvester stallone could bring a gritty edge lacking in the original. they could even set it in america rather than newcastle for a ‘contemporary’ feel ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342/42 "2003-06-13T13:38:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GMRyujin \* > \*\*I just can’t get over Marky Mark. Yes, he was good in Three Kings. But dude…it’s Marky Mark! \*\* Yeah, Marky Mark, lost in space and time, stranded on a planet with Estella Warren _ **IN** _ a loin cloth, and he don’t bag it. That was just freakin’ wrong. ---
**Author:** ![nitroglycerine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c5a1d2/32.png) [@nitroglycerine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nitroglycerine)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342/43 "2003-06-13T15:19:28Z")
How 'bout a remake of ISHTAR? 😃 Jon ---
**Author:** ![JustPlainBryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JustPlainBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustPlainBryan)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342/44 "2003-06-13T15:41:09Z")
> [@](#): > > A Clockwork Orange is one of the movies that should forever be off-limits to remakes–it was perfect the first time around. Besides, it’s impossible to set the movie in any other time or place. The book was written to feature verbally adroit thugs with a penchant for Beethoven to demonstrate the conflict of the superego and the id. Can you really see Snoop Dogg or Fifty Cent mouthing the flow of language in Burgess’s novel? C’mon, it would be impossible to imagine gangsta rappers who have even heard of Beethoven, let alone fancying his music I was thought the OP wanted ideas for movie remakes. I’m confused.😕 **WortMeWorry** and **Fibber McGee** are dead-on in what I’m envisioning. The central idea of the original movie (juvenile delinquent gets “reformed” by the goverment’s new secret weapon drug, and then gets released into the outside world with hilarious consequenses) would be kept, but the dialogue would certainly be different. I think it should be peppered with lots of street vernacular though, like in the original movie. And of course there would be lots of ultra violence. And as for Beethoven, perhaps a track by Mystikal that remixes the Ninth Symphony? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JustPlainBryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JustPlainBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustPlainBryan)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342/45 "2003-06-13T15:47:15Z")
> [@](#): > > I was thought the OP wanted ideas for movie remakes. I’m confused I meant to say “I thought the OP wanted ideas for movie remakes. I’m confused”. Looks like I’m more confused than I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342/46 "2003-06-13T17:05:53Z")
I agree with **FibberMcGee** that there is a huge difference between reinterpreting an original source, such as a great novel, play or folk tale, and redoing a movie. There is no point in saying, sure, go ahead and do a remake as along as you do it so well that you improve on the original. That may even always be the intent. What we wind up with in our world is a thousand bad movies based on bad tv shows, a thousand sequels that exactly repeat the action in the original, a thousand remakes that rip a movie out of a time and place and set it in LA with whoever happens to be the It player of the moment, and whatever category you want to put Gus Van Sant’s Psycho in. Occasionally, there may be a mediocre or bad movie that could be re-envisioned. Occasionally, there may be a movie that can be updated to the current time to give it new meaning. What movies do we remember, though? We remember the true originals, the movies that do something different, the movies that blaze new trails. Originality is not overrated. It is wildly underrated. ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342/47 "2003-06-13T17:17:05Z")
Starship Troopers Or I guess that wouldn’t really count as a remake since the actual story has never been done. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342/48 "2003-06-13T18:33:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Blackclaw \* > \*\*Starship Troopers > > Or I guess that wouldn’t really count as a remake since the actual story has never been done. \*\* You Heilein geeks really have to get over it :rolleyes: And yes I have read the original book. You’d have to pay me an awful lot to read it again. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342/49 "2003-06-13T19:36:36Z")
I’m sort of intrigued by the idea of an urban _Clockwork Orange_. Then again, maybe some of the crappy remakes we’re seeing today sounded good as concepts. Okay, probably not. But still. More than the acting, I can’t imagine who would be able to DIRECT it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342/50 "2003-06-13T19:56:08Z")
I’d love to see a remake of SUNSET BLVD with a modern setting, especially since Robert Blake and O.J. have proven that fascination with well-to-do-has-beens-who-“allegedly”-murder-their-sex-partners is at an all time high. Unfortunately there’s no genre to compare to silent films by way of obsolescence, though- today Norma Desmond would be doing infomercials and hawking “Flab Be Gone 30 Second Workout” items on QVC. Perhaps a gay twist- Richard Chamberlain as the has-been super rich has been king of miniseries who is now agoraphobic and obsessed with remaining young. Ian McKellen could play Max and Elijah Wood the young writer who falls into their clutches. Cameos for the “gin rummy waxworks” game could be Victoria Principal, Joan Van Ark, Burt Reynolds, and Faye Dunaway. An African-American version of Les Miserables could be interesting as well. A black man unjustly accused of burglary during the Watts Riots (Omar Gooding) breaks parole in the 1980s, is shown true kindness by a redneck Holiness minister (Billy Bob Thornton), becomes a Silicon Valley millionaire (i.e. a “Sillionaire”), but is discovered and haunted by ex-prison guard turned state Crime-Czar (Morgan Freeman), ultimately saving the rich liberal white boyfriend (Rider Strong) of his adopted daughter (Beyonce’) to safety during the Rodney King riots. Unfortunately along the way they become the boy-toys of a super rich faded mini-series superstar Richard Chamberlain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-should-be-remade-my-nomination-tommy/181342.md?page=2)