If you could remake one movie- what would it be?

[Beware the Beast Man]

This pertains mainly to movies that should have been good, but got the "Alan Smithee" treatment along the way.

You're a big-money producer/studio head. What film redo would you bankroll? My choice would be "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," since the final product was so far removed from Joss Whedon's original screenplay.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

1. The Thin Man

Now don't get me wrong, the original is a true classic -- so I'm not quite sure that this fits within your question.

However, it's a great story, and I think it could be quite compelling with some updated pacing and dialogue.

I'm thinking maybe George Clooney as Nick Charles and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Nora. They have a nice cocktail-fueled chemistry as evidenced in Intolerable Cruelty.

[arbusto_baboso]

2. That's easy... Gotta be "Dune".

The book was one of THE masterpieces of science fiction, and such a great allegory of Middle Eastern politics. Yet, the movie got the typical Dino De Laurentiis Anti-Midas treatment (i.e., everything he touches turns to shit).

It had so much potential. But it was SOOOOOOO bad!

[sarge43]

4. Dune

Second that. No so much Lynch's fault; it was done to death in the chop shop.

[Bridget Burke]

8. Dune did have many good points....

But they were mostly lost in the final version.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

22. Did you know Alejandro Jodorowsky was going to direct it for a while

with HR Giger & Jean "Moebius" Giraud doing design, Pink Floyd providing original songs and Salvador Dali playing the Emperor.

[terryg11]

30. what?!!

I've never heard tht? Where did yu get that info?

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

46. 'THE FILM YOU WILL NEVER SEE' by Alejandro Jodorowsky

http://www.duneinfo.com/unseen/jodorowsky.asp

& also see the resst of that site's "Unseen Dune" page:
http://www.duneinfo.com/unseen/

He (and Giraud) also talk about it for some time in the documentary La Constellation Jodorowsky, which is an extra feature on the Region 2, PAL DVD of Santa Sangre.

[Vidar]

45. Personally I think it was the best sci fi film ever, and found it

faithful to the book which I used to teach in literature classes. I realize i am a minority opinion, however.

[kick-ass-bob]

3. Anything with Kevin Costner.

With a real actor.

He plays one kind of person, whether the movie calls for it or not.
Field of Dreams: good.

Anything else: bad.

[mikeytherat]

47. Costner's best role? The Big Chill

He was as wooden and emotionless as he always is but, being a corpse, he had no speaking part!

mikey_the_rat

[StopTheMorans]

5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The original sucked ass, and,

though the new remake wasn't half as bad as the original rancid piece of shit, I still wasn't satisfied with it :thumbsdown:

[mikeytherat]

48. I saw the original in high-def recently...

and I thought, "What the f**k is this?" It was so bad, but not as bad as the other films on that night:

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and
Jesus Christ Superstar

Man, that was a stinky movie night...

mikey_the_rat

[tokenlib]

6. Titanic

Dump the fictional romance-- follow the historical record as close as possible. There were enough sleasy characters on board to make it real interesting...

But then it might flop at the box office..

[asthmaticeog]

7. "Taboo Schoolgirl Ecstacy VI: Principal Skinflute's Discipline Diary"

Starring Christina Ricci. And me.

[CanuckAmok]

20. Hey, now, let's not tamper with the classics of the genre.

I think you'll find the subtle use of foreshadow throughout the story, combined with Michael Panaflex's cinematographical play of light and shadow, as well as the extremely tricky and innovative reverse POV money shots, make this a benchmark of the oeuvre.

[asthmaticeog]

21. You wanna direct?

[CanuckAmok]

27. "there is no way I would possibly ever consider doing this...

........unless I saw a script first."

[RandomKoolzip]

37. Not "Police Academy 694: Disembowel Me Again, Seka?"

Dork.

[terrya]

9. "Casino Royale"

It should have been a decent Ian Fleming Bond film...but the remake (with 5 directors, including John Huston), a platoon of writers and an all-star cast, was a cringe-worthy piece of shite.

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. I believe that is the next Bond film.

And the first for Daniel Craig.

[AllegroRondo]

13. Wasnt it meant as a spoof of Bond films?

If you treat it as satire, its quite good.

[Sequoia]

11. The Day the Earth Stood Still, Part II

Remember when Patricia Neal and the alien were in the space ship at the end and when he came out he was wearing his flight suit. He was giving his parting message and looked at Patricia who had walked down to the seating area. I thought, what was that look for. Now I know, they had nookie together and she had a baby. The baby grew up and.....!!

[Hobarticus]

12. What Price Glory, set in modern times....

Probably sink like a stone.

[StaggerLee]

14. From Here to Eternity

The movie didn't do the book justice.

Now as for the cast...I'll have to think on that.

[Initech]

15. I cant be the only one who thinks all remakes are horrible.

In fact, I think it's one of the worst ideas Hollywood has ever come up with.

[CanuckAmok]

17. one noteable exception:

John Carpenter's "The Thing" beats the daylights out of the original.

[Beware the Beast Man]

18. I was going to post a warning in my OP.

If you hate remakes, don't post. Besides, this isn't about redoing classic films, but about ones that should have been better in the first place.

[Initech]

19. All right, if I had to choose, Clerks.

I think it'd be interesting to see it in color for one thing, add in the entire funeral parlor scene, and maybe even the original ending.

[CanuckAmok]

16. A Prayer for Owen Meaney/Simon Birch

"Birch" was an absolute abomination.

[LynneSin]

23. I'd remake Titanic - this time, the boat miraculously makes it to USA

:eyes:

[ScreamingMeemie]

50. The did that already....

Ghostbusters...duh.

[SaveElmer]

24. Revolution...

Great production values...completely sucky movie...and Pacino was sorely miscast...

Not too many really good movies about the American Revolution. They should give this one another shot!

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. I would redo all of Ron Howard's films, and make them, you know, good

[EstimatedProphet]

26. Grease.

I would remake it as 1 1/2 hours of blank film.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

28. "Alien v Predator"

Take two strong franchises and fuck up the finished product so badly it even makes baby Jesus cry. And the pandering to fucking execs who want a PG-13 picture - it's Alien v Predator for Christ's sake.

Regards Buffy - has Whedon's original script leaked? I've only ever heard him complain about the finished movie, without being specific about the problems he had with the studio and I'd love to read it.

[Lilith Velkor]

29. Earth Hive

Instead of the third or fourth movies. That would rock.

[terryg11]

32. originally it was supposed to be pretty hard core sci-fi

I heard this about ten years ago, when they were first thinking of making AvP, it was going to be quite unusual. Possibly no human characters which meant no dialogue and set on a remote station or planet. Obviously the no dialogue thing wouldn't fly at the box office so that got scrapped.

Can't remember where i heard that though, but I got the time right.

[XemaSab]

31. Harry Potter I-IV

Direction by David Lynch, soundtrack courtesy of Pink Floyd's "The Wall."

[terryg11]

33. How about unremaking psycho?

I like the actors and the director of the remake bt won't see it. No reason to even if it's in tribute to the original masterpiece.

[Blue_Tires]

34. Scarface

and believe it or not, if i ever had the money, i ALWAYS dreamed of filming my vision of "2001"

[Dr Fate]

35. League of Extraordinary Gentleman could have rocked.

The comic really kicks ass- loaded with tons of clever literary references and true to the characters...

...the movie really stank and hardly even followed the spirit of the comic...I would have had an opium-junkie Alan Quartermain and the sex-perv Invisible man...

It could have been a fan classic- instead Hollywood completely dumbed it down...

[swag]

36. I would remake "Mystic River" as an 8mm 20 second "golden shower" loop.

And it would win five times as many undeserved fucking Oscars.

[hickman1937]

38. The Secret Garden.

No one has done that book justice. BTW, I liked the original Buffy much more that the TV Buffy.

[RandomKoolzip]

39. "Home Alone."

It'd be 30 seconds long, and consist of one single scene: Joe Pesci exploding. Literally exploding.

[Aristus]

40. "Moonraker".

I would turn the worst James Bond film into a terrific thriller more closely resembling its source material. It would be a (still topical) story about the race to find a stolen nuclear missile, instead of a lame cartoonish space shuttle and Utopia in space flick.

[jobycom]

42. Yes, the basic premise of the book was much better, and Drax

was a lot more interesting in the book. They could have even used some of the film's concept if they'd stuck more closely to the Drax in the book. The whole idea of the Utopian race and a plan to anihilate a large part of the population would have fit well with the literary Drax and his neo-Nazi crew. Just keep the action on the ground. It just got too hard to suspend belief at some point, with Jaws biting cables in half, and Bond outrunning the flames of a shuttle liftoff, and that dumb laser fight in space.

Definitely the worst bond flick.

[enigmatic]

41. "The Razor's Edge"

w/ Christina Ricci as Sophie, Sarah Polley as Isabel, Paxton Whitehead as Elliot, and either Johnny Depp or John C. Reilly as Larry..

[jobycom]

43. I, Robot

Use the same cast and many of the same scenes, but cut out the superhero/action scenes. Instead of all the motorcycle bangbang stuff and the extended Rambo fight sequences, make it more of a "Night of the Living Dead" sequence, with a relentless, faceless enemy you have to outsmart and evade more than fight. That way they wouldn't have to ruin the metaphysical aspect of the film by splicing it with inappropriate John Woo style scenes.

[NMMNG]

44. Flowers in the Attic

They didn't come anywhere near doing justice to the novel with that one. The casting sucked (big time), the acting was pathetic, they made too many deviations from the original story for no good reason, and the whole thing just left me wanting to scream, "How could they do that?!?!".

[ScreamingMeemie]

51. I know! What the hell was with the mother dying by hanging in the

end? I was like, wtf? What the hell did we watch there? I've also gotten pissed of at the use of V.C Andrews as a corporate group "author title" to spin off books that suck.

:hi:

[taterguy]

49. Midway

I would love to see air combat scenes done with today's special effects. I'd also get rid of all those stupid, not related to the battle, plot lines.