Films that you feel DO deserve to be remade

Everlong1

The original Exorcist was brilliant and the special effects still stand up except for one bit: the 360 degree head turn. They should replace that. I would imagine with CGI these days it'd be easy enough?

Harry Palmr

Tilikum wrote: »

Flash Gordon

No way! Mike Hodges version is the perfect representation of a 1930s comic book - gaudy painted skies, lush sets, jazzy lingo, kinky subtexts, Brian Blessed and Queen!

McChubbin

I was just thinking about this tonight whilst idly half-watching The Alan Titchmark Show.
The show was played out by the West End cast of the musical version of "Matilda" and it was just GOD AWFUL. I like musicals from time to time but this one did not set my world on fire, so to speak.
That said, Matilda was one of my favorite Roald Dahl stories and remains so to this day. I loved the original movie version made by Danny DeVito starring Mara Wilson but personally, I always felt there was something terribly English about it.
I'd love to see a remake set in Britain with a stellar cast, though Pam Ferris was fantastic as Madam Trunchbull.
I can easily see an actress such as Sophie Thompson play the role of Miss Honey.
Maybe it's just me but as much as I liked the movie, I felt it was unnecessarily "Amercianised".

ambro25

Peace wrote: »

the stand World War Z. Great book. Movie was so bad it made me laugh at points.

FYP (but/& fully agree with your original post btw, I must have read The Stand at least 4 times over the years, to date).

gandalf

The Keep while I like the original Michael Mann version I think a good remake could really produce a damn fine film.

With my luck Uwe Boll will make it and it will show on SyFy every night for months with a IMDB rating of 3!!!!

Sleepy

World War Z was the first to come to mind but, honestly, Brad Pitt's effort was so far removed from the novel that it wouldn't even count as a re-make!

Like Dune, however, it's one that would be best done for TV by HBO (no one else has the budget!). Frankly, it amazes me that anyone involved in optioning the novel couldn't see that it was more suited to a 20 part tv-series than a by-the-numbers action vehicle for Brad Pitt (I know he optioned it but he could have been the interviewer if he really wanted to "star").

Chip Whitley

Peace wrote: »

The Stand. Great book. Movie was so bad it made me laugh at points.

Completely agree.

I also feel I Am Legend could be a hell of a lot better. I read the original book a long time ago, but I haven't seen the Charlton Heston movie Omega Man (1971), so I can't comment on that but the Will Smith movie (2007) had so much potential and was badly executed for the most part.

MfMan

gandalf wrote: »

The Keep while I like the original Michael Mann version I think a good remake could really produce a damn fine film.

With my luck Uwe Boll will make it and it will show on SyFy every night for months with a IMDB rating of 3!!!!

Ya, some bits of that were really good (the start in particular), but the finished version (heavily edited and recut I think) was a bit all over the place.

Guns Of Navarone was the original 'men on a mission' book and was tense, spare and exciting. The film was a bloated Hollywoodisation, introducing non-existent characters, plot devices, love story, pointless action sequences and was overlong and over-philosophical. A mess largely.

McChubbin

Another vote for World War Z to be remade.
I loved every bit of the book and was so disappointed by the film. I like Brad Pitt as an actor but he was woefully miscast and working from shoddy material in this so called "adaptation" if you can call it that.
To get a true glimpse of what a proper World War Z movie could be, I strongly recommend you guys check out the audiobook version. Mark Hamill features in it and it's quite faithful to the book.

Squeedily Spooch

What I couldn't figure out about WWZ was why exactly Brad Pitt's character was so important? He was brought on board as the "only" man for the job when all he did was go around looking into flimsy evidence, going by whatever scientists or soldiers he met said then randomly winding up in the CDC in Wales by pure chance.

As a straight zombie movie it was grand, but the source material lends itself much better to a miniseries than a movie. The book is superb.

yipeeeee

Adamantium wrote: »

Terminator 2 but only to include the extended future war opening/prolouge that shows how the resistance won the war on the final night

It would have given the fans a substantial look at what they wanted for years and might have closed the franchise/story off rather than the constant mickey tease we've been getting for years in other related spin off media. In hindsight, they might as well have gone through and done it.

Van Ling (Creative Supervisor), in T2, THE BOOK of the Film, An Illustrated Screenplay:
The original 5/10/90 draft contained an extended future war scene that not only addressed the defeat of Skynet and the backstory of how Reese and the Terminator went back through time as mentioned in the first film, but also the backstory of the second film on how the second TERMINATOR was sent through. Cut from the script after the first draft, the scene -- although rich in action and resonance to the first film and its concepts -- was a narrative tangent to the main story of the film and would have cost an inordinate amount of time, MONEY, and effort to produce. This future scene also had the adult John Connor as its narrator.
The final Future War sequence was substantially reduced in both narrative and scope from the version in the original 5/10/90 draftt --which included Skynet's defeat by the human Resistance and the time-displacement scene with Reese-- for a variety of reasons, not only due to the enormous cost of designing, BUILDING, and shooting the battle sequences, but also because the original longer version delayed the process of getting into the main plot, which begins with the arrival of the two Terminators. Through the course of production, the sequence was scaled down and simplified into a short DOCUMENTARY-style prologue, which actually enhanced its narrative value, for although it was not strictly necessary to the plot to show the war, its inclusion of the film serves as both a visceral illustration of what the characters in the film are fighting to prevent, and a narrative reminder to the audience of the world postulated by the first film.

Here's the script for the never produced scenes:

http://www.hopeofthefuture.net/deletedscenes/t2omit04.html

Totally agree, its all the fans want instead of this ridiculous 1950s plot were getting in the next one.

Just give us csmetons future war!

A Neurotic

Birneybau wrote: »

Also contains chapter called 'Killing 5 year old child at Zoo'.

'The Golden Compass' for me, wonderful trilogy of books, mess of a first film so other 2 were put on the scrapheap.

His Dark Materials films, if made with respect, could be incredible. The Golden Compass was a big fat **** all over the franchise.

sheroman01

Definitely 'A Clockwork Orange' for me. Only recently read the book and absolutely loved it. The movie, I thought, was pretty dreadful. It almost felt like a piss-take, the acting was so bad. I think a remake is much needed (movie was first released in 1971), it'd be fantastic

leeroybrown

sheroman01 wrote: »

Definitely 'A Clockwork Orange' for me. Only recently read the book and absolutely loved it. The movie, I thought, was pretty dreadful. It almost felt like a piss-take, the acting was so bad. I think a remake is much needed (movie was first released in 1971), it'd be fantastic

I disagree about the movie. I think it's a brilliant piece of cinema but it has definitely aged quite badly. Someone watching it for the first time in 2014 might view it completely differently to me.

It would however be an interesting project for the right director to film for the current era.

SameDiff

"The Birds".

The technology they had at their disposal looks horrendous now. I would like to see a remake of the original film, including the closing shot that was too expensive for Hitchcock to include.

I'm willing to direct it, if I can get the time off work.

Endaaaagh

I'd love to see a remake of The Running Man which is a more faithful adaption of the book. As good as the original is, it barely follows the original story.

Harry Palmr

SameDiff wrote: »

"The Birds".

The technology they had at their disposal looks horrendous now. I would like to see a remake of the original film, including the closing shot that was too expensive for Hitchcock to include.

I'm willing to direct it, if I can get the time off work.

That's another film which should be tweaked rather than remade, yes the bird attacks are optically challenged to say the least but otherwise its still very effective. I imagine the bird attack sequences could be digitally reworked.

check_six

Brendão wrote: »

Completely agree.

I also feel I Am Legend could be a hell of a lot better. I read the original book a long time ago, but I haven't seen the Charlton Heston movie Omega Man (1971), so I can't comment on that but the Will Smith movie (2007) had so much potential and was badly executed for the most part.

There is an earlier version with Vincent Price called The Last Man on Earth which is worth checking out. The story is terrific so it was disappointing that the Will Smith version missed the mark.

Bipolar Joe

leeroybrown wrote: »

I disagree about the movie. I think it's a brilliant piece of cinema but it has definitely aged quite badly. Someone watching it for the first time in 2014 might view it completely differently to me.

It would however be an interesting project for the right director to film for the current era.

Nicolas Winding Refn. But I do love the original.

Another one for the His Dark Materials trilogy. I love the books, and read them a whole bunch of times. I was legitimately upset when I finished them the first time, and knew the movie would be balls. It's the same reason I never watched the Narnia movies. I cried when I finished the last one.

SameDiff

Harry Palmr wrote: »

That's another film which should be tweaked rather than remade, yes the bird attacks are optically challenged to say the least but otherwise its still very effective. I imagine the bird attack sequences could be digitally reworked.

Not sure it would be that straight-forward, although I do prefer the enhanced version.

The footage is fairly plastered with the dodgy birds. Always thought it was Hitchcock's weakest film too, seems he loved the possibilities that technology opened up. He would have loved films like "Inception" and "The Prestige".

FunLover18

Adamantium wrote: »

I loved 1984 with John Hurt and rewatching Inception, I had an idea. Usually get remakes (I'd rather re-releases tbh usually )

Cillian Murphy as Winston Smith (he would be ****ing amazing) and Ellen Page as Julia. Its had a few adaptations, but I'd love to see it again, and if there's one story that is timeless to human society and needs to be told over and over, it's this one. Hell it's even in Nolan's style of dark and heavy exposition (not saying he'd be necessarily the best)

It's way too close to reality these days, so we'd never see it beyond a teen boppy bastardised version

What's yours?

They are making a new version of 1984 … with Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult

Birneybau wrote: »

Also contains chapter called 'Killing 5 year old child at Zoo'.

'The Golden Compass' for me, wonderful trilogy of books, mess of a first film so other 2 were put on the scrapheap.

Yeh Dark Materials deserved so much better. Along those lines I'd love to see Harry Potter remade as a TV series, GoT style. Those films had such a good cast a lot of whom barely got one line per film.

I'd also love to see the Bond books re-adapted properly, set in the 50s and everything.

Agricola

I am Legend for me too. Read it before I saw the Will Smith film and it was a huge disappointment. They never really nailed the atmosphere of the book. Those CG zombies were a joke too. If they had stuck with vampires and used prosthetics it would have been a start.

Adamantium

FunLover18 wrote: »

I'd also love to see the Bond books re-adapted properly, set in the 50s and everything.

Yes

HBO TV series of Bond in the style of 1960's Mad Men doing actual espionage in Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain. Michael Fassbender or Clive Owen sneaking around the cobble stoned streets of Prague. Use elements of the Space Race and what not.