I've always found this to be quite weird and fascinating
I guess you could argue that Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II is not a remake of Evil Dead but to me it's at least a revamp. simplely put why would Bruce Campbell's character go back to the cabin. I'm guess Alfred Hitchcock thought he could have improved upon his material The Man Who Knew Too Much. Yasujiro Ozu remade A Story of Floating Weeds into Floating Weeds I haven't seen the first but Floating Weeds is incredible stuff.
Anyways, I was always found this to be interesting is there anymore out there that you mofo's can think of, and if you've seen the films i've mentioned above i'd been interested in which you think is better.
What we've got so far:
Evil Dead remade into Evil Dead II
Lady for a Day (1933) into Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
Broadway Bill (1934) into Riding High (1950)
The Ten Commandments (1923) into The Ten Commandments (1956)
Funny Games (1997 & 2008)
Spoor loos (1988) into The Vanishing (1993)
Nattevagten (1994) into Nightwatch (1997).
L.A. Takedown (1989) into Heat (1995)
These Three (1936) into The Children's Hour (1961)
THX-1138 short into THX-1138
Destry Rides Again (1939) into Destry (1954)
Love Affair into An Affair to Remember
Red Dust (1932) into Mogambo (1953)
Marked Men (1919) into Three Godfathers (1948)
Les Fugitifs into Three Fugitives (1986 & 1989)
Just Visiting (1993 & 2001)
Ball of Fire (1941) into A Song is Born (1948)
Last edited by L .B . Jeffries; 02-03-2010 at 02:40 AM.
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Frank Capra remade his superor Lady for a Day (1933) into Pocketful of Miracles (1961) AND the superior Broadway Bill (1934) into Riding High (1950). Even though Capra made this last film at a different studio, Columbia allowed him to use the exact same horse racing footage from Broadway Bill.
Cecil B. DeMille remade his silent The Ten Commandments (1923) into the gargantuan Chuck Heston epic in 1956, although the older movie had a modern story as well as the Biblical one.
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German director Michael Haneke, French director George Sluizer and Danish director Ole Bornedal all got to helm the Americanized remakes of their own films: Funny Games (1997 & 2008), Spoorloos - The Vanishing (1988 & 1993) and Nattevagten - Nightwatch (1994 & 1997).
Michael Mann's Heat (1995) is a remake of an earlier made-for-TV project he had done called "L.A. Takedown" (1989). While Heat is expanded and certainly has better actors and production value, many of the overlapping scenes are almost word for word and sometimes even shot for shot.
William Wyler took two cracks at Lillian Hellman's play "The Children's Hour" at opposite ends of his career: in 1936 (retitled These Three) with Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon and Joel McCrea and in 1961 (as The Children's Hour) with Shirley MacLaine, Audrey Hepburn and Jim Garner.
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German director Michael Haneke, French director George Sluizer and Danish director Ole Bornedal all got to helm the Americanized remakes of their own films: Funny Games (1997 & 2008), Spoorloos - The Vanishing (1988 & 1993) and Nattevagten - Nightwatch (1994 & 1997).
Michael Mann's Heat (1995) is a remake of an earlier made-for-TV project he had done called "L.A. Takedown" (1989). While Heat is expanded and certainly has better actors and production value, many of the overlapping scenes are almost word for word and sometimes even shot for shot.
I have been wanting to watch L.A. Takedown for quiet awhile. I just check out 9 minutes of footage on youtube. Your right there's scenes that play almost exact to HEAT.
Spoorloos and Nattevagten are both better than there counterpart remakes. Althought, I will say Nightwatch was better conceived as a remake and maybe it's just me that it's english version I found the acting to be better as well. The Vanishing was trash.
Lucas made THX as a short, remade it as a feature and remade it again in 2004 with his director's cut.
Raimi made Evil Dead (forget the title) as a super low budget demo film, then made Evil Dead the feature film (and then Evil Dead II and Army Of Darkness). Now he plans to make Evil Dead again, for a third time, with a new director (Sam will produce).
Except for the two Destrys, the only other one I've seen both versions of is The Man Who Knew Too Much. I prefer the second version, but not by a lot. The second one takes too long to get going, but I do think it has a better screenplay, cinematically more polished, and with more charismatic stars.
Howard Hawks remade his own Romantic Comedy Ball of Fire (1941) starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck just seven years later as a Musical called A Song is Born (1948) with Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo and a bevy of Jazz greats as themselves (Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Tommy Dorsey, etc.).
John Ford remade his Silent Marked Men (1919) many years later as Three Godfathers (1948), both co-starring Harry Carey.
A couple of other lesser Americanized remakes done by the original French filmmakers are Francis Veber's Les Fugitifs - Three Fugitives (1986 & 1989) and Jean-Marie Poiré's Just Visiting (1993 & 2001).
And while it hasn't gone into production yet, David Cronenberg has announced intentions to reboot his own version of The Fly (which of course is a remake to begin with).
Last edited by Holden Pike; 02-03-2010 at 02:11 AM.
There goes one I had in mind. But I thought of another one. Hint: A certain director on Holden Pike's list liked remaking himself in his later years.
Yes, Mr. Ford's Mogambo (1953) is a remake of his earlier Red Dust (1932), both starring Clark Gable. Beauties Jean Harlow and Mary Astor co-starred in the original, with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly taking over in the second version. The pre-Hays Code original is actually a sexier and more sultry flick.
I'm also interested in what you think Holden. Of the ones so far mentioned which do you beileve of them were a significant improvement or a complete failure to improve upon the material.
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