"I thought 'Chariots of Fire'" was a remake of 'Ben-Hur' with flamethrowers." —Red Green,The Red Green Show

It has become common in the past few decades to make updated versions of older films. This can be done for several reasons: the director may be a fan of the original work, the studios may want tocapitalize on nostalgia, or the writers may want to approach the original plot from a different angle. A movie is not a remake if it is based on the same source as an earlier film, such as the 1967 and 1998 versions ofDoctor Doolittle, which were both based on the book series.

A variation onThe Remake is theForeign Remake, anEnglish version of a foreign movie. It can be between any two countries, such asThe Ring, a Japanese film remade in the US.

TheVideo Game Remake is a subtrope of this, as isThe Film of the Series.

TV shows can also be remade, but this is much rarer because of the tendency to instead make later seriespart of the same continuity as the earlier ones. When a seriesis remade it is often aContinuity Reboot as well.

It should be noted that remakes have existedalmost as long as there have been movies.

Not to be confused with theREmake, which is a specific example of aVideo Game Remake.

Remakes are also similar toContinuity Reboots, and there is occasionally some overlap. However, one of the key differences between a straight remake and aContinuity Reboot is that anything can be remade, but only a long-running series can berebooted.Retool is also often congruent with bothContinuity Reboots and remakes.

Often, aTone Shift will be part of the Remake.

Straight remakes

Anime and Manga

• Doraemon does this for newer audiences and to keep the series alive - withArt Evolution (and, unfortunately, more censorship).

Film

• The 2010 version ofThe Karate Kid
• The 2001 version ofOcean's Eleven.
• The 1976 and 2005 versions ofKing Kong.
  • Mighty Joe Young is also a friendlier remake of King Kong. Incidentally, that movie was also remade in the 90's.
• The 1996 version ofThe Nutty Professor.
• Flubber was a remake of a 1961 film calledThe Absent-Minded Professor.
• The 1995 and 2003 versions ofFreaky Friday.
• The 1998 version ofThe Parent Trap.
  • The 1961Parent Trap already was the third adaptation of the same book, Erich Kästner'sDas doppelte Lottchen, and thus can itself legitimately be described as aForeign Remake.
• The 1999 version ofThe Mummy.
• The 1999 version ofHouse on Haunted Hill.
• The 1959 version ofBen-Hur is a remake of the 1925 silent movie of the same name.
• The 1956 version ofThe Ten Commandments is also a remake of the 1923 silent movie of the same name. Cecil B. DeMille directed both.
• The 1956 filmThe Man Who Knew Too Much, directed byAlfred Hitchcock is the remake of his own 1934 film with the same title.
• The 1986 version ofThe Fly is a remake of the 1958 version.
• The 2008 version ofThe Day the Earth Stood Still.
• The 1998 and 2009 versions ofThe Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
• The 2007 version ofSleuth. Notable in that it kept one of the original leads, but in the opposite role.
• The 1982 version ofThe Thing, which is also more loyal to the book (Who Goes There?) than the original film,The Thing From Another World.
• An unusual triple threat: Leo McCarey'sLove Affair (1939), starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer, was remade (by Leo McCarey) asAn Affair to Remember (1957) with Deborah Kerr andCary Grant, which was remadeagain (by a different director) asLove Affair (1994) with Annette Bening and Warren Beatty. Ironically,An Affair to Remember is regarded as the best of the three, which has led to a general assumption thatAn Affair to Rememberwas the original.
• The 2005 version ofThe Bad News Bears.
• The 2010 version ofClash of the Titans.
• Heaven Can Wait (1978) was a remake of the 1941 filmHere Comes Mr. Jordan, and itself was remade in 2001 asDown to Earth. It has nothing to do with the 1943 filmHeaven Can Wait (directed byErnst Lubitsch).
• The 1954 and 1976 versions ofA Star Is Born, respectively withJudy Garland andBarbra Streisand.
• In 1977,It's a Wonderful Life was remade as theMade for TV MovieIt Happened One Christmas with Marlo Thomas as aGender Flipped version of theJimmy Stewart character.
• Many people don't realize that the 1941 versionThe Maltese Falcon is actually a remake of a film made ten years prior.
• The 1939The Wizard of Oz was a remake of a version made in 1925, which also wasn't the first Oz film. There weretwo silent-era versions of Oz. The earliest one can be viewedhere.
  • In the 70's, we would haveThe Wiz and later,The Muppets made their own version. Both involved veteran MuppeteerFrankOz.
• The 1983 version ofScarface is also a little better known than the 1932 version. And that one is probably better known than the version made in 1928.
• The 2009 remake ofFame.
• Piranha 3D, the 2010 remake ofPiranha.
• The2011 remake ofFright Night.

Live-Action TV

• The 1992 version of the British sci-fi series "The Tomorrow People"
• The 2000-2001 version ofThe Fugitive.
• The 2007 version ofBionic Woman.
• The 2007 version ofPolice, Camera, Action!, although that was probably due to aRole-Ending Misdemeanor
• The 2003 miniseries and 2004-2009 version ofBattlestar Galactica.
• Gundam Seed of 2002-03 was admittedly a remake of the originalMobile Suit Gundam from 1979.
• A good chunk of HispanicSoap Operas are either remakes of previous soaps (TV or radio) or adaptations of famous romantic books. One example who combine both is the famed "Corazón Salvaje" (title translates toSavage Heart), who began as a romantic novel, then was adapted as a soap inThe Sixties, then later as a movie inThe Seventies, and then again as a soap inThe Nineties who unusually for the trope was claimed as the better version of them all.
  • Sadly, they remade it again in 2009, andruined it again.
• Game shows do this all the time. The best ones came during the '70s and '80s, whereThe Match Game becameMatch Game '7x,The Price Is Right evolved intoThe (New) Price Is Right,Pyramid kept climbing in dollar amounts, andPassword would becomePassword Plus and laterSuper Password. There were numerous "Same shows, new hosts" examples as well, such asFamily Feud (Richard Dawson, then Ray Combs) andCard Sharks (Jim Perry, then Bob Eubanks). More recent revivals tend to fall a bit flat by comparison (Match Game '98 with Michael Burger,Card Sharks '01...just,Card Sharks '01,Family Feud with pretty much everyone since Ray Combs—even an aged Richard Dawson—until John O'Hurley came along, andPyramid with Donny Osmond).
  • On the other hand, GSN's remake of Lingo (hosted by Chuck Woolery)was actually superior to the original.
• The 2009BritcomReggie Perrin, a remake of the 1970sBritcomThe Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.
• The 2009 version ofV.
• The 2010 version ofHawaii Five-O.
• The 2011 version ofCharlie's Angels.

Web Original

• Cracked.com gives usthis list of remakes that missed the point.

Multimedia

• The playThe Front Page by Hecht and MacArthur was first adapted into a movie in 1931, starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien. Howard Hawks remade it in 1940 asHis Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russel, gender-flipping the role of reporter Hildy Johnson. In 1974 Billy Wilder flipped Hildy Johnson's gender back to male in his screen adaptation with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Then in 1988 Ted Kotcheff remade it for the satellite television age with Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner, flipping Hildy back to female.
• TV shows remade as movies (The Film of the Series):
  • The 1979-2009 versions ofStar Trek
  • The 2005 version ofThe Dukes of Hazzard.
  • The 2005 version ofThe Honeymooners.
  • The 2008 version ofSpeed Racer, aLive Action Adaptation.
  • The 1993 version ofThe Fugitive.
  • The 2007Transformers.
    • Along with the 2009 sequel,Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
  • Rebuild of Evangelion.
  • The two Peter CushingDoctor Who films of the mid-1960s are remakes of TV scripts (The Daleks andThe Dalek Invasion of Earth), one of the many reasons they aren't canon.
  • The2008 version ofGet Smart.
  • Kamen Rider the First, a 2005 remake of the originalKamen Rider. Followed in 2007 byKamen Rider the Next, a remake ofKamen Rider V 3.
  • The 2007 version ofAlvin and The Chipmunks, along with itsSqueakquel.
  • The 1978 mini-series version ofPennies From Heaven withBob Hoskins remade as a film in 1981 withSteve Martin

Foreign Remake

Film

• The Ring, a remake of the Japanese filmRingu.
• A Fistful of Dollars, a remake of the Japanese filmYojimbo.
  • Which itself acquired two sequels,one of which was later remade into the KoreanThe Good, the Bad, the Weird.
• Nightwatch, a remake of the Danish filmNattevagten.
• Jungle 2 Jungle, a remake of the French filmUn indien dans la ville.
• The Point of No Return, a remake of the French filmNikita.
• Some Like It Hot, an elaborated remake of the 1951 West German filmFanfaren der Liebe.
• Taxi, the 2003 remake of the French original.
• Father's Day, the 1997 remake of the French filmLes Compères
• The Departed, a remake of the Hong Kong movieInfernal Affairs
• The 2010 remake of the 2007 movieDeath At a Funeral. Bizarrely unneeded, as the original came out not even three years before the film was made, has one of the same actors returning for the same character, and is exactly the same in every way except the characters are black.
• The Debt, a 2011 remake of the 2007 Israeli film by the same name.
• Just Visiting, a remake of the French filmLes Visiteurs.
• Welcome to Collinwood, the 2002 remake of the Italian filmI soliti ignoti, withGeorge Clooney reprisingTotò's role. The same film was also remade earlier with Louis Malle'sCrackers (1984).
• True Lies, a remake of the French filmLa Totale!.
• Shall We Dance, the 2004 American remake of the 1996 Japanese movie. Neither is related to the 1937 movie musical of the same title.
• Quarantine, a 2008 remake of the Spanish film[[[REC]]] (2007).
• Vanilla Sky was a remake of the SpanishAbre los Ojos.
  • WithPenélope Cruz playing the same role in both movies!
• The 1998 American version ofGodzilla.
  • The 2012 Godzilla remake by Legendary Pictures, supervised by Toho themselves.
• The Birdcage, a remake of the Frenchla Cage Aux Folles
• The Wicker Man was remade in the States in 2006, withNicolas Cage in a bear suit.
• Last Man Standing is another remake ofYojimbo.
  • And since it starsBruce Willis could probably be taken asDie Hardmeets Yojimbo.
• Pathfinder is an American action remake of the Oscar-nominated Norwegian filmOfelas.
• The 2010 filmLet Me In is an American remake of the 2008 Swedish vampire filmLet the Right One In.
• King Kong has a few in Asia, althoughYour Mileage May Vary on whether they are direct remakes or rip-offs:
  • King Kong vs. Godzilla is basically a remake of the original Kong for about 2/3 of the movie. The only difference is that he goes on to fight Godzilla and doesn't die in the end.
  • There was a Japanese remake ofKing Kong, which was the firstKaiju film. It was titledKing Kong Appears in Edo. Sadly, this movie is lost.
  • The Mighty Peking Man fromHong Kong.
  • There was a joint US/Korean production calledA.P.E., which is famous for featuring the mom fromGrowing Pains and a giant monkey giving thefinger to the military.
  • There is a Greek remake ofKing Kong as well.

Live-Action TV

• NBC'sThe Office is the Americanized version of the BBC series. Well at least it didn't end up like theirCoupling...
• ABC madeLife On Mars, another BBC show.
• American Idol and its counterpartCanadian Idol are actually the US and Canadian versions of the hit British talent show,Pop Idol. This applies to any other show with the title*Insert Nationality Here* Idol.
• Traffic was originally an English TV miniseries, remade as aFilm Of The Series, which in turn was made into another US TV series.
• Snavely was an attempt to make an Americanized version ofFawlty Towers — starringHarvey Korman, no less — that died a quick and well-deserved death.
  • There was another attempt to remake it withBea Arthur as the gender-swapped version of John Cleese's character.
• Sanford and Son was a remake of the BritishSteptoe and Son.
• Three's Company was based on the BritishMan About The House.
  • The Ropers was based on the BritishGeorge And Mildred.
  • Threes A Crowd was based on the BritishRobins Nest.
• The American remake ofPrime Suspect, starring Maria Bello in the role originally played byHelen Mirren.
• The Killing is a remake of the Danish series Forbrydelsen (The Crime).
• The Swedish seriesWallander was remade byThe BBC.
• The Upper Hand was a remake ofWho's The Boss?.

Multimedia

• The Magnificent Seven is a remake of the Japanese filmSeven Samurai, which was then remadeIn Space asBattle Beyond the Stars, remadeand computer animated asA Bug's Life, then remadeyet again as the animeSamurai Seven.
• There has been talk of an live-actionCowboy Bebop movie, to star Keanu Reeves, since the early-2010s. As of the end of 2018, nothing has come of it.
  • Cowboy Ted at his Matrix?

Unusual/parodic remakes

• See the entireFilm section ofRecursive Adaptation.
• Dragnet (1987)
• The Brady Bunch Movie (1995).
• Airplane!! takes its plot and much of its "straight" dialogue from the 1957 dramaZero Hour!.
• The novelBeau Geste was adapted to film in 1926, 1939 and 1966. In 1977 a parody titledThe Last Remake of Beau Geste was made. The title became not entirely true, because BBC made a television version in 1982.
• Don Bluth's 1997Anastasia is officially aDisneyfication/fantasticization of the 1956 Ingrid Bergman film (itself a play adaptation).
  • Fox specifically presented him with a list of works they owned the rights to that he could adapt. It boiled down to this orMy Fair Lady.
• Last Man Standing is a remake of a remake, being a remake of aFistful of Dollars which was a remake ofYojimbo
• The movieState Fair gota 1945 musical remake, with songs byRodgers and Hammerstein. The musical itself was remade in 1962.
• Gus Van Sant'sPsycho was, save for a gratuitous scene of Mister Bates...misterbating (sorry), and a couple scattered lines of dialogue, a shot-for-shot remake of the Hitchcock original.
• If you'll believe it, a group of teenagers did a shot-for-shot remake ofRaiders of the Lost Ark in the 80s. It's really awesome.
• Someone remade the opening song ofA Goofy Moviein live action And it is awesome.

• Trope
• The Remake
• Derivative Works
• Retro Tropes