Hollywood is fabled for its love of remakes. People like to complain that there’s no creativity or imagination in mainstream movies anymore and that everything is a remake, but there are some movies from over 100 years ago that are still being remade well into the 21st century.
Remakes often have a bad reputation attached to them, but there are many remakes that have far surpassed the popularity and quality of their predecessors. Of course, there are plenty of remakes that are just bad. Here’s a list of ten very different movies and their varying degrees of remakes and reboots.
10 The Longest Yard – Three Remakes
The original The Longest Yard in 1974 starred Burt Reynolds as a former pro football player who gets sent to prison and leads a prisoner vs. guards football game. The first remake was with 2001’s Mean Machine, but since it was set in England, the sport was changed from American football to soccer. The second remake went back to being a football movie in the 2005 film starring Adam Sandler (with Reynolds returning). The latest is Egypt’s Captain, set in Egypt and changed again to soccer.
9 The Cat And The Canary – Five Remakes
Based on the 1922 play, the very first film adaptation of The Cat and the Canary was a silent film in 1927 starring Laura La Plante. The first remake was 1930’s The Cat Creeps, but unfortunately it, along with the Spanish-speaking remake La Voluntad del Muerto from the same year, are both lost films. The most notable remake was 1939’s The Cat and the Canary starring Bob Hope. The next two remakes were a Swedish TV movie in 1961 and a British version in 1979.
8 Freaky Friday – Three Remakes
In 1976, Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster starred in the very first Freaky Friday, a movie about a mother and a daughter who switch bodies and learn to understand each other. The first remake was a 1995 TV movie starring Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann. In the very successful second remake in 2003, Jamie Lee Curtis played a working mom at odds with her rebellious guitar-playing daughter in a garage band, played by a young Lindsay Lohan. In 2018, another TV movie remake was made.
7 Night Of The Living Dead – Seven Remakes
Modern zombie movies owe everything to George A. Romero and his 1968 directorial debut Night of the Living Dead. Not only did Romero re-write what a zombie could be, but the fact that his film is in the public domain makes it so multiple remakes can and have been made, both official and independent.
The first official remake was in 1990 and then another in 2006, titled Night of the Living Dead 3D. Five more remakes have been released since 2012, including two animated adaptations.
6 Ben-Hur – Two Remakes
Based on the 1880 novel of the same name, 1925’s Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ was an epic silent film that was MGM Studio’s biggest money-maker for decades, though the money didn’t even break even. Thirty-four years later, the first remake, simply titled Ben-Hur, was released, starring Charlton Heston. The remake was an even bigger success than the original, making MGM millions of dollars and earning 12 Oscar nominations. Unfortunately, the 2016 Ben-Hur remake, also made by MGM, didn’t fare well, financially or critically.
5 A Star Is Born – Three Remakes
Originally a 1937 romantic drama starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March about an aspiring actress and a fading Hollywood star falling in love, A Star Is Born has been notoriously been remade four times.
In the first remake not made for television, Judy Garland and James Mason played singers-in-love as one’s star rises and the other’s falls. Twenty-two years later, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson starred in the next remake, and in 2018, the latest remake starred pop star Lady Gaga and director Bradley Cooper.
4 Stagecoach – Two Remakes
Based on a short story called “The Stage to Lordsburg” and considered one of the best westerns of all time, John Ford’s 1939 Stagecoach put a little unknown actor named John Wayne on the map.
Over thirty years later, a remake was made starring Ann Margaret and Bing Crosby. In 1986, a TV movie remake was made starring the Highwaymen, AKA country music legends Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash who had formed a supergroup a year before their remake was released.
3 The Mummy – Two Remakes
Originally a 1932 Universal Monster movie starring Boris Karloff, The Mummy has been remade and rebooted for modern audiences, with varying results. First was the 1999 Stephen Sommers-directed remake, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.
Moving away from the horror themes of the original, the 1999 version is more of an action-adventure movie designed for modern audiences and it worked as the remake garnered sequels, spinoffs, and a Universal Studios ride. In 2017, a reboot/remake starring Tom Cruise was released but ended up failing at the box office.
2 King Kong – Two Remakes
King Kong as a character has always held a place in the hearts of movie-goers and nothing proves this more than the commercial and critical success of each version. The original 1933 King Kong starred Fay Wray and its use of stop-motion animation was groundbreaking at the time. Its official remakes like 1976’s King Kong starring Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges, and Peter Jackson’s 2005 King Kong starring Naomi Watts and Andy Serkis as Kong himself have each made their own cornerstones in pop culture.
1 Seven Samurai – Three Remakes
Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is a landmark film that has inspired countless homages and remakes. One of the most significant remakes is 1960’s The Magnificent Seven, an American western that took the original concept of seven ronin (samurai without masters) defending a village against bandits and making it about Old West gunslingers. In 1980, another remake called Battle Beyond the Stars was released, but this time it was set in space. A remake of both Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven was also released in 2016.
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