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A remake is a
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same story as the original but uses a different cast, and may alter the theme or change the story's
setting Setting may refer to: * A location (geography) where something is set * Set construction in theatrical scenery * Setting (narrative), the place and time in a work of narrative, especially fiction * Setting up to fail a manipulative technique to eng ...
. A similar but not synonymous term is reimagining, which indicates a greater discrepancy between, for example, a movie and the movie it is based on.


Film

A film remake uses an earlier movie as its main source material, rather than returning to the earlier movie's source material.
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
's '' Ocean's Eleven'' is a remake of 1960's '' Ocean's 11'', while 1989's ''
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
'' is a re-interpretation of the comic book source material which also inspired 1966's ''
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
''. In 1998,
Gus Van Sant Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American film director, producer, photographer, and musician. He has earned acclaim as both an independent and mainstream filmmaker. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultur ...
produced an almost shot-for-shot remake of
Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
's 1960 film '' Psycho''. With the exception of
shot-for-shot Shot-for-shot (or shot-for-shot adaptation, shot-for-shot remake) is a way to describe a visual work that is transferred almost completely identically from the original work without much interpretation. Production uses In the film industry, most ...
remakes, most remakes make significant changes in character, plot, genre, and theme. For example, the 1968 film '' The Thomas Crown Affair'' is centered on a bank robbery, while its 1999 remake involves the theft of a valuable painting. The 1999 remake of ''
The Mummy A mummy is an unusually well preserved corpse. Mummy or The Mummy may also refer to: Places *Mummy Range, a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States *Mummy Cave, a rock shelter and archeological site in Par ...
'' was viewed primarily as a "reimagining" in a different genre (adventure). Similarly, when the 1969 film '' The Italian Job'' was remade in 2003, few aspects were carried over. Another example is the 1932 film '' Scarface'' which was remade in 1983 starring
Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...
; the 1932 version is about the illegal alcohol trade, while the characters in the 1983 version are cocaine smugglers. Sometimes a remake is made by the same director. For example, Yasujirō Ozu's black-and-white ''
A Story of Floating Weeds is a 1934 silent film directed by Yasujirō Ozu which he later remade as ''Floating Weeds'' in 1959 in color. It won the Kinema Junpo Award for best film. Plot The film starts with a travelling kabuki troupe arriving by train at a provincial se ...
'' was remade into the color ''
Floating Weeds is a 1959 Japanese drama directed by Yasujirō Ozu, starring Nakamura Ganjirō II and Machiko Kyō. It is a remake of Ozu's own black-and-white silent film '' A Story of Floating Weeds'' (1934) and considered one of the greatest films ever made. ...
''. Alfred Hitchcock remade his 1934 black-and-white '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'' in color in 1956. ''
Tick Tock Tuckered ''Tick Tock Tuckered'' is a 1944 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The cartoon was released on April 8, 1944, and stars Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. This is a color remake of the cartoon ''Porky's Badtime Story'' (1937) ...
'', released in 1944, was a color remake of ''
Porky's Badtime Story ''Porky's Badtime Story'' is a 1937 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Robert Clampett (his first short as director) and an uncredited Chuck Jones. The short was released on July 24, 1937, and stars Porky Pig and Gabby Goat. The s ...
'', released in 1937 with Daffy Duck in Gabby Goat's role. Cecil B. DeMille managed the same thing with his 1956 remake of his silent 1923 film '' The Ten Commandments''. In 2008,
Michael Haneke Michael Haneke (; born 23 March 1942) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. His work often examines social issues and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has made films in French, G ...
made ''
Funny Games U.S. Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in t ...
'', his
English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
remake of his original '' Funny Games'' (this is also an example of a shot-for-shot remake), while Martin Campbell, director of the miniseries '' Edge of Darkness'', directed the 2010 film adaptation. Not all remakes use the same title as the previously released version; the 1966 film '' Walk, Don't Run'', for example, is a remake of the World War II comedy '' The More the Merrier''. This is particularly true for films that are remade from films produced in another language such as '' Point of No Return'' (from the French ''
La Femme Nikita La Femme Nikita may refer to: * ''La Femme Nikita'' (film), a 1990 French action film by Luc Besson, originally named "Nikita" * ''La Femme Nikita'' (TV series), a 1997–2001 TV series based on the film, also called "Nikita" * ''Nikita'' (TV se ...
''), ''
Vanilla Sky ''Vanilla Sky'' is a 2001 American science fiction thriller film directed, written, and co-produced by Cameron Crowe. It is an English-language remake of Alejandro Amenábar's 1997 Spanish film '' Open Your Eyes'', which was written by Amenábar ...
'' (from the Spanish '' Abre los ojos''), '' The Magnificent Seven'' (from the Japanese ''
Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story takes place in 1586 during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. It follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who hire seven ...
''), '' A Fistful of Dollars'' (from the Japanese ''
Yojimbo is a 1961 Japanese samurai film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, and Atsushi Watanabe. ...
''), '' The Departed'' (from Hong Kong's '' Infernal Affairs''), '' Secret in Their Eyes'' (from the Argentine ''
El secreto de sus ojos ''The Secret in Their Eyes'' ( es, link=no, El secreto de sus ojos) is a 2009 Argentinian crime drama film directed, co-written, produced and edited by Juan José Campanella, based on the novel ''La pregunta de sus ojos'' (''The Question in Thei ...
''), '' Let Me In'' (from the Swedish film '' Let the Right One In'' or ''Låt den rätte komma in''), and '' The Ring'' (from Japanese film ''
Ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
)''. Remakes are rarely sequels to the original film. In this situation, essentially the remake repeats the same basic story of the original film and may even use the same title, but also contains notable plot and storyline elements indicating the two films are set in "the same universe". An example of this type of remake is the 2000 film version of ''
Shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around whi ...
,'' which was the second film adaptation of the original novel but was also a canon storyline sequel to the original 1971 film adaptation. The 2013 remake of ''
Evil Dead ''Evil Dead'' is an American horror film franchise created by Sam Raimi consisting of four feature films and a television series. The series revolves around the ''Necronomicon Ex-Mortis'', an ancient Sumerian text that wreaks havoc upon a gro ...
'' was also a storyline sequel, featuring a post-credits cameo from
Ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
. The Italian film '' Perfect Strangers'' (''Perfetti sconosciuti''; 2016) was included in the Guinness World Records as it became the most remade film in cinema history, with a total of 18 versions of the film.


Television

Remakes occur less often on television than in film, but have happened from time to time, especially in the early 21st century. Examples include ''
Battlestar Galactica ''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series), original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel se ...
'' (2003), '' He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'' (2002), ''
La Femme Nikita La Femme Nikita may refer to: * ''La Femme Nikita'' (film), a 1990 French action film by Luc Besson, originally named "Nikita" * ''La Femme Nikita'' (TV series), a 1997–2001 TV series based on the film, also called "Nikita" * ''Nikita'' (TV se ...
'' (2010), '' V'' (2009), '' Hawaii 5-0'' (2010), and ''
Charlie's Angels ''Charlie's Angels'' is an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC from September 22, 1976, to June 24, 1981, producing five seasons and 115 episodes. The series was created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and was produced by Aa ...
'' (2011). One area where television remakes are particularly common is remaking British shows for the US market or, less frequently, American shows for the UK. For example, '' Three's Company'' is an American remake of the British '' Man About the House'': not only was the original show re-created (with very few characters or situation changes initially), but both series had spin-offs based on the Ropers (in the UK, '' George And Mildred'', in the US, ''
The Ropers ''The Ropers'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from March 13, 1979, to May 22, 1980. It is a spin-off of ''Three's Company'' and loosely based on the British sitcom ''George and Mildred'', which was itself a spin-off of ...
''), and both series were eventually re-tooled into series based on the male lead (in the UK, '' Robin's Nest'', in the US, '' Three's a Crowd''). The British sitcom ''
Till Death Us Do Part ''Till Death Us Do Part'' is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1975. The show was first broadcast in 1965 as a ''Comedy Playhouse'' pilot, then as seven series between 1966 and 1975. In 1981, ITV continued the sitcom ...
'' inspired the American '' All in the Family,'' while ''All in the Family'''s spin-off '' Maude'' was remade in the UK as ''Nobody's Perfect.'' Another example is the long-running US sitcom '' The Office'' (2005-2013), which was a remake of the 2001 BBC sitcom of the same name. The American version's
pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...
followed its British counterpart "nearly verbatim," though later episodes had their own unique plot. The American television show '' The Killing'' is an investigative crime drama based on the Danish series '' Forbrydelsen''.


Video games

A video game remake is a game that's built from the ground up. In some cases only models and environments are remade, while retaining the game's original code. Remakes are produced for the purpose of modernizing a game for newer hardware and new audiences. Typically, a remake of such game software shares its title, fundamental gameplay concepts, and core story elements with the original. With the advent of such notable video game remakes such as '' Resident Evil 2'' in 2019 (followed by ''
Resident Evil 3 ''Resident Evil 3: Nemesis'' is a 1999 survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom originally for the PlayStation (console), PlayStation. It is the third game in the ''Resident Evil'' series and takes place almost concurrently ...
'' in 2020) and '' Final Fantasy VII Remake'' in 2020, these strict notions are being called into question and brought into a more broader perspective. This can even be seen as early as 2004 with the release of '' Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes'' as that title features newer gameplay additions and voice acting. Remakes are often made by the original developer or copyright holder, although some are made by the fan community. If created by the community, video game remakes are sometimes also called fan games and can be seen as part of the retrogaming phenomenon.


See also

*
List of British television series based on American television series Although most United States-made television series are directly exported to the United Kingdom using the original production and cast, some successful shows have been remade for the British market. The following list include American TV shows and ...
*
List of English-language films with previous foreign-language film versions This list includes both English-language films that were based on previously released foreign-language films and those that were not based on any previous film, but merely share a common source material. Chinese Czech Danish Dutch ...
* Cover versions of songs


References

{{Authority control Film and video terminology Television terminology