The movie remake is a time-honoured Hollywood tradition, making Hollywood the only place on earth where people get paid to plagiarise. Like the biopic, the remake is a hit and miss genre of film. Movies get made from plays, books, comic books, video games and even other movies (remember Gus Van Sant’s shot for shot remake of Psycho?) . It seems the screen writer can steal ideas from anywhere as long as the studio pays enough for the rights to the story and characters. It’s not enough to remake an idea once, either. Just look at Shakespeare, who, along with Dickens, is one of the most stolen from writers on the planet. The story of Romeo and Juliet has been told 13 times since 1900 is various movies, and that’s not including movies that don’t use the title Romeo and Juliet, but still “borrow” the storyline.
One of the latest incarnations of the Romeo and Juliet story
I mentioned Dickens as well because A Christmas Carol has been filmed 14 times (again, not including the times that it has been told under a different name) starring a wide variety of Scrooges from Jim Carrey and Bill Murray to George C. Scott and even Susan Lucci.
Susan Lucci as a female Scrooge
It’s not just classics that are remade either. Lately Hollywood has been dipping into the 1980’s to remake movies that can still be seen on cable, like Fame, Footloose and Red Dawn in an attempt to lure the nostalgic movie-goer back into the theaters. Nevermind that most people of my generation (okay… younger than me by 5 to 10 years) are too busy with work and kids to bother going to a theater to see a movie and would prefer to send their kids off to one so they can have some quiet time at home.
The “new” Footloose
I am not a fan of the movie remake in general, but as it is a practice that has been going on forever and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon, I would like to offer up a movie that is ripe for a remake. Building on the success of movies that star people from my parents generation (and older) like Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Dame Judi Dench and Robert DeNiro because Baby Boomers are going to the movies in droves, I say why not do a remake of Arsenic and Old Lace?
Carey Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace
Originally a hit Broadway play, this movie has only been remade once in 1969 as an ABC movie of the week, so it has not been done to death. I have even taken the liberty of putting together a fantasy cast for the project. Below is the original cast of the main characters for the Frank Capra 1944 version.
- Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster
- Priscilla Lane as Elaine Harper Brewster
- Josephine Hull as Aunt Abby Brewster
- Jean Adair as Aunt Martha Brewster
- Raymond Massey as Jonathan Brewster
- Peter Lorre as Dr. Herman Einstein
- John Alexander as “Teddy Roosevelt” Brewster
Now here is my fantasy cast.
- Hugh Grant as Mortimer Brewster
- Gwynneth Paltrow as Elaine Harper Brewster
- Maggie Smith or Betty White as Aunt Abby Brewster
- Judi Dench or Cloris Leachman as Aunt Martha Brewster
- Robert Englund as Jonathan Brewster ( the he looks like Boris Karloff joke could be updated to say he looks like Freddy Krueger)
- Danny DeVito as Dr. Herman Einstein
- The obvious choice here would be Robin Williams as he has already played Teddy Roosevelt in the Night at the Museum movies, but I would like to offer up Anthony Hopkins as an alternative casting choice (he doesn’t do much comedy, but I think this is an untapped talent that he possesses) as “Teddy Roosevelt” Brewster
If Hollywood MUST churn out remake after remake, I say maybe movie-goers should help them along with some creative suggestions of our own.
What would be a movie you would like to see remade and who would star?
