Flickgrrl

Long ago, I enjoyed several times on TV "The Omega Man" and I look forward to the remake.

I'd see a 3rd "Manchurian Candidate." The 1st was a masterpiece. The 2nd was quite good.

The recent "Alfie" wasn't nearly as good as the Michael Caine version. Might as well not make that one again.

Well, there was Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" then "The Magnificent Seven" (which might not qualify as high art but is the perfect example of what I consider a Great Movie).

There have been many ensemble/'buddy' flicks that have taken elements from these two movies (the "Dirty Dozen" immediately comes to mind) but has anyone taken the story of "Seven Samurai" and tried to recreate a faithful adaptation of it? (As a three-make?)

You piqued my interest - I could well imagine a heavy hitting cast of Lawrence Fishburn (in the James Coburn role), Will Smith (in the Steve McQueen role), Ice-T (in the Charles Bronson role), Denzel Washington (in the Yul Brynner role), Forrest Whittaker (now HE could do the Robert Vaughn role), Wesley Snipes, Samuel L. Jackson in the Eli Wallach role... Set it in an urban neighborhood under the control of a gang. Am I being ridiculous here? With truly talented direction and writing that stayed faithful to the spirit of the two 'originals' you could have a really good movie.

I have a couple of three-makes:

Shop Around the Corner - In the Good Old Summertime - You've Got Mail

Three versions of A Star is Born (Gaynor - Garland - Streisand)

Little Miss Marker - Sorrowful Jones - Little Miss Marker

Chicago - Roxie Hart - Chicago (Although does it count if it was on Broadway first?)

Are The Money Pit and Are We Done Yet considered remakes of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House or just different rabbited lallies of the same frame?

I always loved "Body Heat", but it is debatable that it was better than the original "Double Indemnity" with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck. Both are far superior to the Richard Crenna TV version.

Does "The Big Lebowski" count as a remake of "The Big Sleep"? If so, that gets my vote.

What about movies based on classic books? I'm thinking, haven't there been three Robin Hoods, Frankensteins, Draculas, Hamlets, Three Musketeers. Little Women? ... A Christmas Carol, for sure. Or even comic books, like Batman and Superman. ... or fairy tales like Cinderella. Hmmm, could Young Frankenstein be the best threemake?

Aren't there three Freaky Fridays?

Actaully, there's a fourth version of "A Star is Born": "Up Close and Personal" with Robert Redgord and Michelle Pfeiffer.

I think both "Freaky Friday" and "The Parent Trap" have their origins in German farces of the 1930s, will check.

Actually Carrie you're missing one of the most obvious threemakes (and fourmake, and fivemake, etc.) in this holiday season. How many times has "A Christmas Carol" been remade? Personally my two favorite versions are with Alistair Sims and George C. Scott.

As a big fan of the Charlton Heston post-apolcalyptical moveies of the late '60s and early '70s (the first 2 "Planet of the Apes", "Soylent Green" and "Omega Man"), I think that you are missing the fact that the upcoming remake of "I Am Legend" actually is a FOURpeat. While "28 Days Later" (which you do not mention) does not give Matheson a credit, it is a virtual copy of the plot of Omega Man, introducing a group of survivors so that the main character does not have to babble to himself for 90 minutes. If "Omega Man" is a production of "I Am Legend", so too is "28 Days Later", making this the fourth production of this classic.

Actually, Carrie, the Jodie Foster "Anna and the King" was a FOUR-quel, not a three-quel. You're forgetting (as well you should, probably) the insipid "King & I" cartoon that was foisted on an unsuspecting moviegoing public about nine months before "Anna and the King" was released.

I'm so proud, I just thought of a three-make. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the latest with Nicole Kidman.

How about "Rio Bravo"/"El Dorado"/"Assault On Precinct 13." (Let's be nice to everyone involved, especially us, and forget the re-make of the last one.)

Actually, this makes me think of what might be an even tinier niche: movies re-made by the same director. Besides the Hawks reiteration above, there's John Ford's "Steamboat Round the bend"/"The Sun Shines Bright."

And I'm tapped out...

All of these are great. WWolfe, I believe that Leo McCarey's Love Affair and "Affair to Remember" belongs in that mini-niche you mentioned.
Palestrajon, 28 Days Later is close to "I am Legend" but there are enough differences for me to think it's an inspired by rather than a threemake.

No one's answered the question of why these stories are so durable. The last man on earth theme is obvious. "Shop Around the Corner" has likewise has an enduring theme: The idealized person you love, your pen pal, is actually the co-worker you most hate -- you get to see the best and worst faces of him.

To Maureen--

Actually, there have been four versions of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." The first, of course, was by Don Siegel. The second by Philip Kaufman. Both were titled "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." The third, by Abel Ferrara, was made in 1993 and titled "Body Snatchers." The most recent is Oliver Hirschbiegel's "The Invasion." I like all four - surefire material.

--Joe

Invasion by the Other and the resulting destruction of civilization is an incredibly potent and resonating story. Played out today in the apocalyptic Fifth Remake of "Body Snatchers", entitled "The Two Terms of Incurious George," wherein ironically Emperor Chimpy wants to divert the fear of the populace from his mad takeover by making us fear The Relentless Muslim. Personally, I found the Vietnam tapes to have a less stagy, rigged up feel to them.

Carrie--

Let's not forget those three American films based on Choderlos de Laclos' novel, "Les Liaisons Dangereuses":

-Stephen Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988)

-Milos Foreman's "Valmont" (1989)

-Roger Kumble's "Cruel Intentions" (1999).

Of course, there were two French versions made under the original title - a feature by Roger Vadim featuring Jeanne Moreau and Gerard Philip(1959) and a French mini-series by Josee Dayan starring Catherine Deneuve, Rupert Everett, Natassja Kinski and Leelee Sobieski (2003).

Two more threesomes...

It is not well known by the French film "Amelie" is a take on "Emma" just as "Clueless" was - all three films about women meddling in the romantic lives of the people around them.

Also Diane English is finally doing her remake of "The Women":

The original 1939 version starred Norman Shearer as Mary, Joan Crawford as Crystal, Roz Russell as Sylvia, Paulette Goddard as Miriam, Pyllish Povah as Edith and Mary Boland as Flora (plus Joan Fonatine).

The new version stars Meg Ryan as Mary, Eva Mendez as Crystal, Debra Messing as Sylvia, Jada Pinkett Smith as Miriam, Annette Bening as Edith and Bette Midler as Flora (plus Candice Bergen, Debi Mazur, Lynn Whitfield, Joanna Gleason and Cloris Leachman).

The 1956 musical version was titled "The Opposite Sex" and starred June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Grey, Joan Blondell, Ann Miller, Ann Sheridan, Agnes Moorehead and Alice Pearce.

Three - count 'em - three

“The Bounty” is a movie that served zero purpose after the great Laughton/Gable and Howard/Brando versions of “Mutiny on the Bounty”

Thanks, Joe, for your encyclopedic movie memory.

And AndyG, didn't much like the Anthony Hopkins/Mel Gibson "Bounty," when first I saw it, but on second viewing found that its sympathy for Captain Bligh fascinating.

What about " A Boy and His Dog", from 1975, a cult
post-nuclear holocaust sci-fi movie, similar to "I Am Legend" in that the hero (a young and very cute Don Johnson) has a dog as his sidekick. It's more of a black comedy, but with a similar theme of survival in a deserted post-apocalyptic world. I haven't seen this movie around for years, but I bet it would do well on the college midnight movie circuit.

"A Star is Born" three times or four. The Janet Gaynor-William Wellman version isn't as good as the marvelous Garland-Cukor one but it's very similar. I could never bring myself to watch the Streisand.
There's also an early (1932?) George Cukor movie called "What Price Hollywood?" that's really the same story (so much so that the producers of the first "Star is Born" were worried about being sued).

Brenda..."A Boy and His Dog" is quirky, all right...it's based on a Harlan Ellison novella about a post-apolcalyptic world in which a telepathic dog enables a rambler to find women to rape. The novella had an even angrier tone to it---it's more like "Mad Max" than "I am Legend."

By the way, Carrie, Steven Rea's review of "I am Legend" tipped the hat to "28 Days Later", which he thought was much better.

One more, Carrie:

Capra's "It Happened One Night" (1934) was remade twice - by Will Jason in 1945 as "Eve Knew Her Apples" (with Ann Miller) and by Dick Powell in 1956 as "You Can't Run Away from It" (with June Allyson and Jack Lemmon).

Two more, of the "re-made by the same director" type: Capra's "Lady For a Day" and "Pocketful of Miracles." The Passionate Moviegoer jogged my memory of these two.

Re Capra's "Lady for a Day" and "Pocketful of Miracles," other films made twice by the same director include:

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Hitchcock

"The 10 Commandments" by C.B.DeMille

"These Three"/"The Children's Hour" by William Wyler

"Love Affair"/"An Affair to Remember" by Leo McCarey

"Les Fugitifs"/"Three Fugitives" by Francis Veber

(And let's not forget Woody Allen, who directed "September" twice, filming it once with one cast and then starting from scratch again, with some of his original players switching roles, while other parts completely recast.)

Carrie--

Better late than never... Here's a selection of titles based on the same famous Damon Runyon story:

Alexander Hall's "Little Miss Marker" (1934) with Adolphe Menjou

Sidney Lanfield's "Sorrowful Jones" (1949) with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball

Norman Jewison's "40 Pounds of Trouble" (1962) with Tony Curtis and Suzanne Pleshette

Walter Bernstein's "Little Miss Marker" (1980) with Walter Matthau and Julie Andrews (and, again, Tony Curtis).

--JB

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