Remake
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In film, a remake is a newer version of a previously released film or a newer version of the source (play, novel, story, etc.) of a previously made film.
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Film
The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source. For example, 2001's Ocean's Eleven is a remake of the 1960 film, while 1989's Batman is a re-interpretation of the comic book source material which also inspired 1966's Batman. Furthermore, the 2005 film Batman Begins would not be considered a remake, as it is still an adaptation of the comic book series. The term "requel" can also be used to described a remake of an earlier movie.
With some exceptions, remakes make significant character, plot, and theme changes. For example, the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair is centered on a bank robbery, while its 1999 remake involves the theft of a valuable piece of artwork. Similarly, when the 1969 film The Italian Job was remade in 2003, few aspects were carried over. Another notable example is the 1932 film Scarface which was remade in 1983 starring Al Pacino; whereas the 1932 is centered around bootleg alcohol, the 1983 version is based around cocaine. Sometimes a remake is made by the same director, for example Yasujiro Ozu's black and white A Story of Floating Weeds was remade into the color Floating Weeds. Alfred Hitchcock's 1934 black and white The Man Who Knew Too Much was remade in color in 1956.
Not all remakes use the same title as the previously released version; 1983's Never Say Never Again, for instance, is a remake of the 1965 film Thunderball; the 1966 film Walk Don't Run is a remake of the World War II comedy The More the Merrier. This is particularly true for films that are remade from films produced in another language, such as: Point of No Return (from the French Nikita), Vanilla Sky (from the Spanish Abre los ojos), and A Fistful of Dollars (from the Japanese Yojimbo), The Departed (from Hong Kongese Infernal Affairs).
In the recent history of cinema, remakes have generally been considered inferior to earlier versions by film critics and cinema-goers alike, e.g., The Wicker Man, Psycho,The Fog. See the list of film remakes for exceptions to the generalization.
Another noteworthy (and increasingly common) development is the use of a successful (usually older) television series to be remade as a feature film. Like other film remakes, these often fare badly at the box-office and/or are considered a poor reflection on the source material (e.g. The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, My Favorite Martian, Dudley Do-Right); however, some have gone on to become successful film franchises (e.g. Scooby-Doo, The Addams Family, Mission: Impossible).
Video Games
- See also Video game remake.
There are video game remakes as well. Some are more complete remakes where much of the game was changed such as Metroid: Zero Mission being a remake of the original Metroid. Some of them are simply the original game with some added content, such as the Xbox 360 and Wii versions of Bully. There are even some that are a mixture of the two, where there is a good mix of old and new content, such as the Final Fantasy remakes for the DS and Super Mario 64 DS
Not a remake
Some notable examples of films based on common material, but not considered remakes of each other:
- Any adaptation of a classic piece of literature, such as the plays of William Shakespeare, epic poetry (e.g. Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, the works of Homer), stories from the Bible unless the makers specifically remade a previous film, such the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille version of The Ten Commandments, which was a remake of the first half of DeMille's 1923 silent version).
- Any adaptation of Alice in Wonderland: one important factor in this is that each adaptation either does or does not include sections from Through the Looking Glass.
- Any adaptation of the story of Peter Pan, including (but not limited to) the 1924 silent film, the 1953 Walt Disney animated version, the 2003 live-action version, and the 1991 Steven Spielberg film Hook (which, oddly enough, is a sequel to the J. M. Barrie story, but not a direct sequel to any previous film adaptation).
- Brett Ratner's 2003 thriller Red Dragon is an adaptation of Thomas Harris's novel of the same name. The book had been adapted into film once before by Michael Mann, under the title Manhunter, in 1986. However, Red Dragon differs from Manhunter in many ways (Mann changed the names of several characters in his version, in addition to depicting events in a different order from the sequence followed by the book); therefore, Red Dragon is not a remake.
- The Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films are adaptations of Tolkien's books, although they contain numerous homages to the 1978 Ralph Bakshi film. Neither Jackson's nor Bakshi's films bear any relation to the Rankin/Bass Hobbit and Return of the King.
- The 2003 film Hulk was not a remake of the 1978 TV series The Incredible Hulk, although it paid several homages to that adaptation. Similarly, the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk is neither a sequel nor a remake of the 2003 film, but owes much more to the TV series than its predecessor.
- The 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale is not a remake: the 1955 teleplay and 1967 satire aren't "official" Bond films (that is, made by EON Productions), and deviated sharply from the novel.
Television
Remakes occur less often on television than in film, but have happened from time to time. Examples include Battlestar Galactica (1978, 2003), He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983, 2002), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987, 2003).
One area where television remakes are particularly common is trans-Atlantic ports, where US shows are remade for the UK (see List of U.S. television series remade for the British market) or more frequently, UK shows are remade for a US market (see List of British television series remade for the U.S. market). An interesting example is Three's Company, a US remake of the British Man About The House: not only was the original show re-created (with very few character or situation changes made, at least initially), but both series had spin-offs based on the Ropers (in the UK, George And Mildred, in the US, The Ropers), and both series were eventually re-tooled into series based on the male lead (in the UK, Robin's Nest, in the US, Three's A Crowd).
While television remakes of theatrical films have occurred (e.g. The Odd Couple, F/X: The Series), far more common are TV series that are (more or less) direct spin-offs of successful films (e.g. Highlander: The Series,The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Stargate SG-1, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). Template:See
Reimagining
Recently, the term reimagining has become popular to describe remakes that do not closely follow the original. The term is used by creators in the marketing of films and television shows to inform audiences that the new product is not the same as the old. Reimaginings often contain tongue in cheek references to the original with characters and concepts of the same name, but significantly changed. In Tin Man, a reimagining of The Wizard of Oz, the main character is named DG (a reference to Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz), and the land she enters is called the Outer Zone (O.Z.). Reimagining a franchise often leads to controversy within established fan communities as to which is more legitimate or more popular. Examples of remakes that are most associated with the reimagining term are Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, Nora Ephron's Bewitched, Marcus Nispel's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th, Rob Zombie's Halloween, Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica, David Eick's Bionic Woman, Nelson McCormick's Prom Night, and Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. This has bled over to video game and comic mediums with games like Bomberman Act: Zero, a more hardcore edge to Bomberman that wasn't well received. Bionic Commando Rearmed, which changes some elements of the game and story to fit into an upcoming sequel but pays homage to the original. In comics with the new Sgt. Rock, with the Rock as a member of the 442nd and the unknown "Easy Company" and Unknown Soldier, which takes place in 2002 Uganda, both which change the setting or the character to be more realistic and modern.
See also
- Shot-for-shot
- List of film remakes
- List of British television series remade for the U.S. market
- List of English-language films based on foreign-language films
- Cover versions of a song
- Video game remake
- Remastering
