10+ Movies We Can’t Believe Are Actually Remakes
Many of us look forward to new movie releases and buy tickets to all the premieres. We’re fascinated by original new ideas brought to the big screen, but it turns out that many of them are not so new. More and more, Hollywood producers are turning to forgotten, or lesser-known, films of the past in an attempt to turn them into modern-time hits.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) / Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Modern audiences are only familiar with the action comedy starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (and, of course, the story of the passionate “Brangelina” relationship that emerged on the set).
Meanwhile, some 60 years before that, film lovers enjoyed an eccentric comedy of the same name. While in the mid-90s, there was a TV series called Mr. and Mrs. Smith, about a spy couple, starring Scott Bakula and Maria Bello.
Scent of a Woman (1974) / Scent of a Woman (1992)
Al Pacino won an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in the 1992 movie, while the original Italian film received two nominations. Despite the fact that these films have a similar plot, Dino Risi and Martin Brest portrayed the character very differently.
The 1974 film focuses more on the blind man’s relationship with women, while the remake revolves around the interaction between the colonel and his assistant.
Yojimbo (1961) / Django (1966) / Django Unchained (2012)
While we can’t strictly say that Django Unchained is a new version of the western Django, the main characters in both films really are quite similar, if only in appearance. Django, on the other hand, is based on an Akira Kurosawa film about a rōnin, who runs his own game in a power struggle between two rival clans.
Scenes from a Marriage (1973) / Scenes from a Marriage (2021)
The famous Swedish director Ingmar Bergman directed the multi-episode drama in 1973. The script is based, in part, on the experiences of Bergman himself, as well as his co-star Liv Ullmann.
Hagai Levi decided to reimagine the story and directed a mini-series in 2021, giving it the same title and making only minor changes to the plot.
Scarface (1932) / Scarface (1983)
The iconic role of Tony Montana earned Al Pacino a Golden Globe nomination, but he was not the first one to portray this character.
In the 1932 movie with the same title, the main character had a different surname, Camonte, and his criminal activities were strictly law-related rather than drug trafficking. Nevertheless, a tragic ending awaited them both.
The Man in the Iron Mask (1977) / The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
There are many films based on this story, all sharing the same literary basis — the novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, by Alexandre Dumas. The movie, starring Leonardo Dicaprio, who, incidentally, won a Golden Raspberry Award for his portrayal of King Louis XIV and the masked prisoner, is based on two screen adaptations, one made in 1929 and another in 1939.
Twenty years earlier, based on the 1939 adaptation, The Man in the Iron Mask was made in Britain. The lead role was played by Richard Chamberlain.
After the Wedding (2006) / After the Wedding (2019)
After the Wedding, starring Julianne Moore, is a remake of the drama starring Mads Mikkelsen, and quite an accurate one, at that. The protagonist runs an orphanage in India and must meet a patron in their home country. And so it goes: a wedding invitation, a newfound daughter, and a difficult moral choice.
The remake’s creators only decided to change the gender of the main character from male to female, and adapt certain circumstances accordingly.
Force Majeure (2014) / Downhill (2020)
In 2020, a completely inept remake of the Swedish film Force Majeure was released. The original was a drama with elements of black comedy and won several prestigious film awards and nominations. The makers of the new film left the plot intact but added clumsy humor to the narrative, which made the story superficial and boring.
Four Steps in the Clouds (1942) / A Walk in the Clouds (1995)
This touching melodrama starring Keanu Reeves was released in 1995. The protagonist, being a kind and noble man, decides to help a strange girl who is afraid to go home because she is pregnant and her boyfriend has left her. He agrees to introduce himself as her husband.
This plot is borrowed from the 1942 film Four Steps in the Clouds. The difference is that Keanu Reeves’ character falls in love with the girl and divorces his wife, while in the older version, after bailing the girl out, the protagonist returns home to his wife.
The Last Kiss (2001) / The Last Kiss (2006)
The American romcom starring Zach Braff is a remake of the Italian drama of the same name. In both films, the narrative revolves around a character who is not ready to become a father and therefore runs away from responsibility.
The original seems to have a certain philosophical depth, focusing on the experiences of the protagonist. It has received several awards and nominations. The remake is a cute Hollywood comedy for an easy watch.
Everybody’s Fine (1990) / Everybody’s Fine (2009)
What many people don’t know is that Everybody’s Fine starring Robert De Niro is a remake of the Italian drama of the same name, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, and starring Marcello Mastroianni. According to the plot, the main character, a widower, decides to visit his adult children who live in different cities in the USA. They don’t want to disappoint their father, and so each of them tries to gloss over reality in their own way.
The original film takes place in Italy, the protagonist has not 4, but 5 children, each with a name associated with a character from an Italian opera, and each child has personality traits that are reminiscent of the character they’re named after. The film endings are also different.
The Dinner Game (1998) / Dinner for Schmucks (2010)
Following the success of the TV series The Office, Steve Carell was the ideal candidate to play the “schmuck” in the 2010 film Dinner for Schmucks. Before him, a similar role in the French original comedy The Dinner Game was played by Jacques Villeret. The movie was a massive box office success at home, in 1999, making it to 2nd place, behind Titanic.
The American film, on the other hand, was more convoluted, with a jumble of characters and storylines, and was not particularly popular with audiences.
The Bourne Identity (1988) / The Bourne Identity (2002)
What you probably didn’t realize is that Matt Damon isn’t the first actor to play Jason Bourne. Before him, it was Richard Chamberlain, who played the agent in the 1988 TV movie based on the novel by Robert Ludlum. It had a whopping running time of 3 hours and 5 minutes.
In the 2000s, there were three films about Jason Bourne (starting with The Bourne Identity in 2002), which only took the basic idea from the book. The plot underwent significant changes to fit the modern era and new characters and details were added to make it more entertaining.
Meet the Parents (1992) / Meet the Parents (2000)
In the early 2000s, the saucy comedy about a loser with a memorable surname who meets his fiancée’s parents seemed to have been watched by everyone. The sparkling duo of Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro ensured that the movie made box office success and won several film awards. And no one suspected that it was a remake.
In 1992, Greg Glienna wrote and directed a low-budget film with the same title. He played the title role himself, hence the name of the main character. Not many people know the original, but Elliott Grove, the founder of the Raindance Film Festival, prefers it over the remake: “The original version was much funnier and tighter than the Hollywood version. Most of the good jokes were watered down”.
Open Your Eyes (1997) / Vanilla Sky (2001)
The melodramatic thriller Vanilla Sky went down in the history of cinema in the 21st century as one of the most romantic films. It was nominated for an Oscar and has received many other awards. It starred Tom Cruise and Penélope Cruz.
The plot of Vanilla Sky is the same as Alejandro Amenábar’s Open Your Eyes, which had been released 4 years earlier. Penélope Cruz also played the main role here, but her partner was the famous Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega. Even though there are practically no differences in the plot, each of the movies has its own distinctive features and was well received by critics.
Bonus
Many compare Tarantino’s Kill Bill to François Truffaut’s 1967 drama The Bride Wore Black. The plot is indeed similar: with the groom being killed during the wedding and the bride taking revenge, crossing the names of her victims off her list, just like Beatrix Kiddo. Film buffs have found similarities in other details as well.
But Quentin Tarantino insists he hasn’t seen the French film, stating on several occasions that the image of The Bride emerged in his and Uma Thurman’s conversations while working on Pulp Fiction.
Why, do you think, nowadays there are more and more remakes of films, that hardly seems old enough to merit one?