I have discontinued updating the remakes page and have moved it here as a post just for historical reference.
The Remake Insanity
Filmmakers have been remaking films for years, but over the last few it seems to have reached ridiculous levels.
I am not actually against all remakes. I want to make that very clear. What I want to examine is the difference between a remake for the creativeness or a remake simply to make a buck. Slightly unfair, as I understand all movies are made to make money, it is a business after all. This list is really just a sober reminder of how creatively bankrupt Hollywood seams to have become. I hope that we come through this little fad and start really having a look at some more original ideas.
First I think we need to have a few ground rules:
a) No remakes of foreign films (that just opens a whole other can of worms), this is about Hollywood remaking itself
b) No TV series to film remakes (that is also a whole other list)
c) No made for TV movies, this is about theatrical releases
d) You must be able to list the dates of the original and the remake(s).
This list is by no means complete, if you can think of any that I don’t have here, submit them to the forum, make sure you look at the instructions above. Here they are in no particular order:
War of the Worlds (1953, 2005 and many TV versions)
The Punisher (1989, 2004)
Not of this Earth (1957, 1988, 1995)
Get Carter (1971, 2000)
The Pink Panther (1963, 2006)
The Longest Yard (1974, 2005 and a British remake in 2001)
Fun with Dick and Jane (1977, 2005)
The Hitcher (1986, 2007)
Halloween (1978, 2007)
King Kong (1933, 1976, 2005)
Slueth (1972, 2007)
Psycho (1960, 1998)
The Producers (1968, 2005)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1971, 2005)
Yours, Mine and Ours (1968, 2005)
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967, 2005)
Cheaper By The Dozen (1950, 2003)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, 2003)
The Amityville Horror (1979, 2005)
The Shaggy Dog (1959, 2006)
My Friend Flicka (1943, 2006)
Lassie (1943, 1994, 2005)
The Poseidon Adventure (1972, 2006)
Charlotte’s Web (1973, 2006)
Last Holiday (1950, 2006)
When a Stranger Calls (1979, 2006)
The Omen (1976, 2006)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977, 2006)
The Hills Have Eyes 2 (1985, 2007)
Planet of the Apes (1968, 2001)
Dawn of the Dead (1978, 2004)
Night of the Living Dead (1968, 1990, 2006)
Day of the Dead (1985, 2008)
Ocean’s Eleven (1960, 2001)
Cape Fear (1962, 1991)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947, 1994)
Red Dragon (1986 as Manhunter, 2002)
The Fog (1980, 2005)
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976, 2005)
The Three Musketeers (1921, 1933, 1939, 1948, 1951, 1973, 1993 and others)
Hairspray (1988, 2007)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, 1978, 1993, 2007)
The Thing (1951, 1982)
Invaders from Mars (1953, 1986)
Dracula (1931, 1958, 1979, 1992 and many other versions)
Frankenstein (1931, 1994 and many other versions)
Rollerball (1975, 2002)
The Nutty Professor (1963, 1996)
The Absent Minded Professor (1961, 1997 as Flubber)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, 2008)
His Girl Friday (1940, 1988 as Switching Channels)
The Women (1939, 2008)
Prom Night (1980, 2008)
…and what does the future hold for Hollywood? More of the same…
2009 Child’s Play (1988)
2008 The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
2009 The Big Chill (1983) – Oh, the humanity!
2009 The Karate Kid (1984)
2009 Barbarella (1968) – at least Rose McGowan is hot!
2009 Street Fighter (1994) – they say it is not a remake.
2009 Escape from New York (1981)
2009 The Evil Dead (1981)
2009 The Birds (1963) – because remaking Hitchcock has been so successful in the past!
2009 A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
2009 Masters of the Universe (1987) – HAHAHAHAHAHA!
2010 Friday the 13th (1980)
2010 Clash of the Titans (1981) – is this really necessary???
2010 Logan’s Run (1976)
2010 Dune (1984) – Keep Lynch away from it!
2010 Fantastic Voyage (1966) – Wasn’t InnerSpace already a kind of remake?
2009 The Hidden (1987)
2011 Captain America (1990)
(unknown release date) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
(unknown release date) Mother’s Day (1980)
(unknown release date) Candyman (1992) – that’s right, we are now remaking 90s films!!!
Update: (14th July, 2008) I have just read that the remake of Clash of the Titans is going to be directed by Louis Leterrier (“The Incredible Hulk”, the “Transporter” films) from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan (“The Big Chill”, “The Empire Strikes Back”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Silverado” etc.). This might not be such a bad idea after all.
Another Update: We have reached a new benchmark! We are now remaking 1990s movies! I am always interested in seeing how close we can get to the original before we remake it. I was sure that we wouldn’t remake films past the 80s because surely that wasn’t long enough ago….I was wrong. What’s next? Do we remake The Dark Knight or better yet we could remake The Watchmen?!?!?!?
