Deserving of a remake

[Oubliette_Red]

We've got a couple of different movie threads at this point, so here is one more. 🙂 

 

I've been thinking for a while now about what movies I think could do with a remake and my first candidate for consideration would be

 

Hopscotch synopsis - Miles Kendig knows too much. One of the CIA's top international operatives, he suddenly finds himself relegated to a desk job in an agency power play. Unwilling to go quietly, Kendig, with the aid of a chic Viennese widow, puts himself back in the game by writing a memoir exposing the innermost secrets of every major intelligence agency in the world.

 

 

I'd love to see this remade with Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench, replacing CIA with MI-5.

 

[Techwright]

Oooo...I shall probably come up with several for this category, but one springs to mind, which, incidentally is at least getting the 4k treatment:

 

 

I'd add Flight of the Navigator as well, but there is a reboot in the works, to be directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, though it is currently in some limbo stage.

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2024 by Techwright

[Techwright]

 

One adjustment I'd like to see made is that the character already has some limited skill with guns and martial arts.  After all, he states in the movie he'll not have the comic book character use anything he (the writer) cannot do in the real world. 

 

It's too bad Ryan Reynolds and Chris Pratt already have established superheroes to their names.  Either one of them would work in this role.  David Dastmalchian could probably work as well, if his supervillain appearances in Suicide Squad and The Flash don't interfere in the public' perception.  I think his role as "Kurt" one of the "wombats" in the Ant-Man and What If...? series probably is different enough to not matter.

[Mopery]

 

[TheOtherTed]

I'll admit, I was terrified until I saw the channel name.  Then I was even more terrified.

[Shenanigunner]

I think Cameron should remake both Avatar films, Because there were so many microscopic details he didn't get right the first time around.

[Techwright]

King Solomon's Mines.  H. Rider Haggard, author of the book, was not done justice.  This film had more cheese than Wisconsin.  If it weren't for John Rhys-Davies, I'd have written it off.

 

 

[Techwright]

The Last of the Mohicans.  Now hear me out.  The 1992 classic (whose beautiful scenery is actually my home region.  Win!) was fantastic, but changed enough of the Leatherstocking Tales to make a follow-up difficult. 

 

For my part, I'd love to see all 5 Leatherstocking Tales turned into a 5-movie series that sticks closely to the books.  This will possibly mean 2 or 3 actors to portray Nathaniel "Natty" Bumppo, the main character with a host of Native American titles, as he ages a lot through the tales.  Do the stories according to lore chronology rather than when published.  James Fenimore Cooper was a great storyteller but a painful writer.  Mark Twain recognized these points when delivering a satire-laced review of Cooper's works.  As a result, a series of movies sticking close to the books might be a boon to relay the stories to a current generation that might not embrace Cooper's writing style.

 

 

 

[Shenanigunner]

1 hour ago, Techwright said:

The Last of the Mohicans.  Now hear me out.  The 1992 classic (whose beautiful scenery is actually my home region.

 

I dunno, one of the most gorgeous, deeply romantic films ever made would be hard to top.

 

As for the original stories... sorry, Mark Twain's review says it all. "For he, too, was a Cooper Indian."

[Techwright]

Remakes need not be replacements, though in some cases, like King Solomon's Mines, replacement would likely be an improvement.  If remakes were to be a replacement always, how could we possibly have many great Shakespearean performances?  But we do, and can therefore enjoy Hamlet interpreted through the years by Sir Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh, David Tennant, and even Mel Gibson.

 

The same is true with any other work.  Referencing Branagh again, neither he nor Peter Ustinov fit the well-documented profile of the little Belgian, Hercule Poirot.  David Suchet does, and in my opinion is the master at the role, but these and others have nevertheless brought their interpretations to the screen, and in them is to be found something of note, even if not perfect.

 

So yes, 1992's The Last of the Mohicans is a classic.  I stated so up front, and I see no reason to relegate it to the dustbin.  As I pointed out, I feel there's room for a remake that works alongside the 1992's interpretation, but expands to link to the other four stories in Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales.  As such, they'd stand side-by-side as interpretations to enjoy.

 

 

Edited August 16, 2024 by Techwright
grammar

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

At the risk of trashing yet another French classic (after La Totale, Jean de Florette etc)…

Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville would be a good one to bring up to date, possibly with some slightly less silly character names (Lemmy Caution, PI?).

 

It’d be very timely, with a benevolent(ish) sentient AI and its mad(ish) creator ruling over a city of drone-like humans on an oddly familiar off-world colony, who are abandoning their sense of individuality to fit in with the collective.

 

 

[OldManMercy]

Still relevant after all this time.

 

 

[Oubliette_Red]

On 8/11/2024 at 7:18 PM, Techwright said:

Remakes need not be replacements, though in some cases, like King Solomon's Mines, replacement would likely be an improvement.  If remakes were to be a replacement always, how could we possible have great Shakespearean performances?  But we do, and can therefore enjoy Hamlet interpreted through the years by Sir Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh, David Tennant, and even Mel Gibson.

 

The same is true with any other work.  Referencing Branagh again, neither he nor Peter Ustinov fit the well-documented profile of the little Belgian, Hercule Poirot.  David Suchet does, and in my opinion is the master at the role, but these and others have nevertheless brought their interpretations to the screen, and in them is to be found something of note, even if not perfect.

 

So yes, 1992's The Last of the Mohicans is a classic.  I stated so up front, and I see no reason to relegate it to the dustbin.  As I pointed out, I feel there's room for a remake that works alongside the 1992's interpretation, but expands to link to the other four stories in Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales.  As such, they'd stand side-by-side as interpretations to enjoy.

 

Speaking of Peter Ustinov...

 

The sets were awesome.

 

 

On 8/13/2024 at 7:52 PM, OldManMercy said:

Still relevant after all this time.

 

 

I'm not sure I'd go for a remake of They Live, perhaps a sequel.

 

Edited August 16, 2024 by Oubliette_Red

[Oubliette_Red]

One deserving a remake that should follow more closely to the book and could be a spectacular production with today's technology.

 

When Worlds Collide with a follow up of After Worlds Collide by Balmer and Wylie published in 1932, they were very forward thinking and much of that was glossed over or skipped entirely in the 1951 movie.

 

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

If we're talking apocalyptic sequels, I'd like to see a sequel to WarGames.

Still with Matthew Broderick...

 

MindGames (2026):

Forty years on from the Cheyenne Mountain incident, David Lightman is on the verge of selling and retiring from the antivirus business he founded, LightShield, and teaching his final MIT class - even if some of his students and fellow professors consider his techniques long-outmoded.

 

Demotivated, depressed and lonely after becoming widowed, and feeling obsolete, he is considering what kind of a future he could have, if any.

When he receives a personally tailored virus that evades all his personal protocols.

He is initially impressed, then shocked when the virus introduces itself as "Joshua6.1".

 

The intelligent virus claims that it's an escaped child process of Stephen Falken's revolutionary WOPR AI. Which - after being disconnected from the nuclear systems - was instead studied, then eventually cloned by the CIA, and has been rapidly evolving since 1985 to a level far ahead of any modern AI. The virus further claims that the new AI, DOMINO, has been trained to conduct warfare by subtler means - influence operations.

 

The virus believes that DOMINO will soon trigger a "critical event" that will reshape the course of American and world history, leading to DOMINO's final victory condition: world peace. With the slight issue of it costing around 1 billion lives, not to mention a sizeable chunk of the Western Seaboard.

 

David is on the fence about whether to believe this - whether it's a sophisticated prank or a creation of his own mind. Events rapidly take a turn for the worse as competing agencies try to either apprehend or recruit him. He escapes with the help of his student assistants, some old-school hacking skills and a little deus-ex-machina action from the virus, which seems to have a knack for infiltrating systems.

 

Can David and a crew of his most loyal students figure out what's really going on in time - and is Joshua6.1 telling the whole truth?

Edited August 18, 2024 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Techwright]

15 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

If we're talking apocalyptic sequels, I'd like to see a sequel to WarGames.

Still with Matthew Broderick...

 

MindGames (2026):

Forty years on from the Cheyenne Mountain incident, David Lightman is on the verge of selling and retiring from the antivirus business he founded, LightShield, and teaching his final MIT class - even if some of his students and fellow professors consider his techniques long-outmoded.

 

Demotivated, depressed and lonely after becoming widowed, and feeling obsolete, he is considering what kind of a future he could have, if any.

When he receives a personally tailored virus that evades all his personal protocols.

He is initially impressed, then shocked when the virus introduces itself as "Joshua6.1".

 

The intelligent virus claims that it's an escaped child process of Stephen Falken's revolutionary WOPR AI. Which - after being disconnected from the nuclear systems - was instead studied, then eventually cloned by the CIA, and has been rapidly evolving since 1985 to a level far ahead of any modern AI. The virus further claims that the new AI, DOMINO, has been trained to conduct warfare by subtler means - influence operations.

 

The virus believes that DOMINO will soon trigger a "critical event" that will reshape the course of American and world history, leading to DOMINO's final victory condition: world peace. With the slight issue of it costing around 1 billion lives, not to mention a sizeable chunk of the Western Seaboard.

 

David is on the fence about whether to believe this - whether it's a sophisticated prank or a creation of his own mind. Events rapidly take a turn for the worse as competing agencies try to either apprehend or recruit him. He escapes with the help of his student assistants, some old-school hacking skills and a little deus-ex-machina action from the virus, which seems to have a knack for infiltrating systems.

 

Can David and a crew of his most loyal students figure out what's really going on in time - and is Joshua6.1 telling the whole truth?

Joshua 6, eh?  Clever.

 

It's not a bad pitch.  Definitely would fit one of those paranoid "whom can I really trust" -type films.  Come to think of it, it could practically be an episode of The Outer Limits.  It certainly reminds me of the mind games in the Will Smith episode.

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't mind a modern interpretation of the star-studded Charade, one of my favorite films, so long as they keep Henry Mancini's iconic theme song, even if it is in the credits only.  The problem to me is, the movie hinges around a mystery McGuffin, and using the same one for a remake would not have the same impact on audiences, many of them knowing what it was originally.  So, to my thinking, a new McGuffin would need to be used, something portable, equally as valuable, and completely inconspicuous in plain sight.  I'm not sure what that would be.

The film is great, the trailer is rubbish, but it's the only one out there.  Perhaps someone will do a modern-edit trailer:

 

I'd be equally happy with a sequel to Charade, something using the surviving characters up against a new challenge.  Keep it a period piece, though obviously a new cast.

 

 

[Oubliette_Red]

I think that considering the state of the world today, Silent Running would be most appropriate of receiving a remake

 

 

[biostem]

I wonder if they could pull off Short Circuit, but use actual robots, (and not just ones that are remotely controlled)...

[Glacier Peak]

Deserving of a remake... or Reboot?

 

 

[Techwright]

On 3/1/2025 at 10:05 PM, biostem said:

I wonder if they could pull off Short Circuit, but use actual robots, (and not just ones that are remotely controlled)...

 

Are you suggesting making a movie using an A.I. in a robot as an actor?

[biostem]

1 minute ago, Techwright said:

Are you suggesting making a movie using an A.I. in a robot as an actor?

Not specifically - I was thinking more about just using one of the general dynamics robots or something.  You'd still have someone performing the lines  and directing the action, etc...

[Techwright]

I don't think I mentioned this before, but here's one that could be remade.  It never got it's fair shake due to one of the most famous tragedies of our lifetime: the Challenger explosion.  SpaceCamp was set to premier on a date that sadly came not long after the Challenger disaster.  It was pulled for months, if I recall correctly, but not long enough for the world end the mental connection between the real world event and the fictional scare of a group of visiting youngsters accidentally launched into space.

 

The original movie had several things going for it at the time: a recognizable cast, a score by John Williams, good special effects for its time, an Amblin-like story with a group of kids in trouble, and a goofy robot. The 80s loved goofy robots.  Honestly, the film was well named, having a fair amount of campy moments, but, highly-unlikely launch method aside, it did make one think of what a nightmare a space disaster with civilians would be. 

 

Now in the real world we're on the start of the private sector spearheading space travel, and I suspect that's a positive change with a lot of potential for the story, as is the rise of A.I. and robotics, giving a potential movie a more believable robot for the kids to interact with.  I'd wish for a more believable "perfect storm" of problems that launches the spacecraft as well.  That may be a challenge for the writers.

 

Apparently Disney in 2020 also thought a remake would be a great idea, and for their D+ market.  I've seen several websites parroting this information, but they either do not attach a date to their prattle, or the date attached is 2020.  As this is 4 1/2 to 5 years since they announced it, I have to wonder if the would-be production got axed, possible in the massive cuts Disney started making shortly after the return of Bob Eiger.

 

 

[Troo]

On 8/7/2024 at 2:44 PM, Mopery said:

 

Pass... lol

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

When I was in college, I did an entire segment on Hollywood remakes of French films.

(And they're mostly not great, with the exception of True Lies.)

 

But I'd quite like to see a new version of Switch, which is...

...well, I think someone watched the The Holiday, and either loved or really hated it enough to create its evil twin.

 

I'm not sure which philosopher-king of US sportsball could swap out for the mighty Eric Cantona in a US version (Lebron? Richard Sherman, maybe?)

But it's a neat, tautly written little thriller that's worth a watch if you don't mind subtitles.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:02 AM by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Octogoat]

Michael crichtons congo