# Your Favorite Film: Could it be remade? Why or why not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385 "2003-10-30T03:58:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/21 "2003-10-31T01:34:45Z")
Princess Bride could never be remade. There is no one with the size and gentle, sweet quality of Andre, not to mention all the other fun and quirky characters. They’d probably cast Renee Zellweger as Buttercup and Ben Affleck as Westley, causing me to go on a homicidal spree through Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/22 "2003-10-31T01:37:31Z")
_Blade Runner_ or any myriad of cult classics: _Rocky Horror Picture Show Eraserhead Raising Arizona_ ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/23 "2003-10-31T02:27:44Z")
Bit of a hijack, but I really wish that somebody would do a George Lucas on both **Alien** and **The Terminator** and fix the few special effects bits that really didn’t work. **Alien** had such perfect casting that I don’t think it could ever be wholly remade, but there are two scenes in it that could really use a bit of CGI touching up in my opinion. The first is the scene in the air vents when Dallas meets up with the title critter. It’s only for a brief second, but the shot of the alien just standing there extending his arms looks extremely cheesy. The second is the scene where Ash’s head is knocked off and Ripley is trying to activate it. It’s clearly a fake head as she tries to position into upright, and then _poof_ it’s a real head again. Similarly, in **The Terminator** there is a scene where the big T is removing his damaged eyeball with an exacto knife, and the use of a fake head intercut with shots of the real actor’s head are just too glaring. Again, though, it would be foolish to try to remake the entire movie. Barry ---
**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:** [October 31, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/24 "2003-10-31T03:11:58Z")
How about any of the _Evil Dead_ movies? I can’t see a remake of those, and certainly no one better than Bruce Campbell as Ash. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/25 "2003-10-31T04:02:51Z")
_The Third Man_. Where would you shoot it? You couldn’t have made the film without the backdrop of blasted-out Vienna. Maybe Baghdad, when and if things get under control over there? Or Belgrade? Yeah, actually I can see it happening in Belgrade, or some blasted city in Bosnia. Hmm, who would play the main characters. I think Philip Seymour Hoffman, with some skilled makeup to age him a little bit, could do a fabulous job as The Guy Whose Name Isn’t in the Credits (don’t want to spoil this for those who haven’t seen it). I think Campbell Scott could cover Joseph Cotten’s role. And that’s saying something, since Joseph Cotten is pretty much my second favorite actor ever, after Cary Grant. And for Alida Valli’s role, I think the current actress who could best get that particular mix of toughness and total vulnerability is Julie Delpy. I’d have Steven Soderbergh direct, and I think I’d have him do it in color, but color along the lines of the Detroit scenes in _Out of Sight_. The only thing that wouldn’t be changeable is the music; you’d absolutely have to keep Anton Karas’s zither score. I’d watch that. ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/26 "2003-10-31T04:26:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by beajerry \* > \*\*Doctor Strangelove. > > Not only because Sellers and the Cold War are gone, but Kubrick’s style can’t be duplicated or improved upon. \*\* In the immortal words of Slim Pickens: “Ditto.” It could never be done again. Of course, considering the tripe Hollywood spews out these days, I imagine they’d have that empty-headed moron Jerry Bruckheimer vomit forth some “action-thriller” version with Bruce Willis and The Rock. Hopefully I die before that day arrives. ---
**Author:** ![Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moo_the_Magic_Cow)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/27 "2003-10-31T05:49:22Z")
I don’t think they should remake Almost Famous because 1) it’s a period piece and 2) it’s only a few years old. ---
**Author:** ![gaba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@gaba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaba)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/28 "2003-11-01T16:00:36Z")
You know, speaking about technically enhancing the older movies. Like the notion of upgrading Terminator or Alien. or the way they “improved” star wars… yes, it makes for a more spectacular piece of a picture, but somehow I am opposed to that too. I think a film is being made at a certain moment in time. And all the technical difficulties of the moment are not only obstacles, but they spawn new ideas, and creative solutions that wouldn’t be needed if they could resolve the problem with one click of a button. I think these little shortcomings (or the way they’re brilliantly overcome… or not) are as much a piece of the movie as everything else. That’s how film history’s made and it’s brilliant to see how cinematographers (or ex-cinematographers, like the brilliant Ridley Scott in whose movies the details are the power) struggled against all those limits of their age. I mean, take Blade Runner. One of the buildings in the grand shots overlooking the city is nothing else but a part of plastic model of a Star Wars Destroyer ship. Today they’d just make a cgi of it. I don’t want that. It’s done, the movie’s complete, don’t mess with it. It’s like with remastered records. Remaster them. Don’t record new backing vocals and fix the guitar solo. Go back to the multis, clean up the mix, but don’t add new stuff. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/29 "2003-11-01T19:33:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by audit1 \* > \*\*It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. We don’t have character actors that match the cameos in that movie let alone the stars. \*\* Um, that movie _was_ remade. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/30 "2003-11-01T20:57:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lissener \* > \*\*Um, that movie _was_ remade. \*\* Really? IMdB doesn’t list a remake. It shows a Hong Kong film called [Fu gui bi ren](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091090/), which it translates as “It’s a Mad Mad Mad World” (not only 3 ‘Mads’), but it doesn’t have any plot or other information, so I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be a remake. What I’m assuming is a sequel, [Fu gui huang jin wu](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104310/) (“It’s A Mad Mad Mad World Too”, with the same actors and director), has a plot outline of “A large extended family are forced to find another place to live.”, which certainly doesn’t sound like the plot of a sequel to a remake of **It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World** , so I’m assuming you’re talking about something else. But you’ve aroused my curiousity… When did they remake **It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World**? ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385/31 "2003-11-01T21:00:21Z")
I don’t usually make another post to correct a simple typo, but since it could change the meaning of the sentence… my first parenthetical above should read: “(note only 3 ‘Mads’)”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-film-could-it-be-remade-why-or-why-not/210385.md?page=1)