Classic Films Nobody's Remade...Yet
The few true cinematic masterpieces nobody in Hollywood (or anywhere else) has yet had the ginormous brass balls to try and remake...because they were done right the first time. But given the major studios' notorious penchant for trying to gin up new life from old "brands," don't assume any of these films will remain safe forever. After all, up until 2008 The Day The Earth Stood Still was on this list (thanks a bunch, Keanu).
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- DirectorVictor FlemingGeorge CukorSam WoodStarsClark GableVivien LeighThomas MitchellA sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.Margaret Mitchell's one and only novel...and David O. Selznick's spectacular adaptation. Probably not yet remade in part because no stars today have the looks, talent or smoldering chemistry of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh (though Clooney and Bullock do come remarkably close).
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsHumphrey BogartIngrid BergmanPaul HenreidA cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.One of a tiny handful of candidates for Bogart's signature film, along with The African Queen and The Maltese Falcon...and the film that made a young Swedish ingenue named Ingrid Bergman a star. Not yet remade as a film, though two short-lived TV-series prequels and several radio versions were made.
- DirectorVictor FlemingKing VidorStarsJudy GarlandFrank MorganRay BolgerYoung Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.Released the same year as GWTW by the same studio (MGM), and just as big and long-lasting a hit. No outright remakes yet, though sequels and prequels abound, most recently Disney's Oz, the Great & Powerful starring James Franco as the Wizard...and of course, there's Broadway's funked-up reworking, The Wiz, which also got filmed.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenDorothy ComingoreFollowing the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'Orson Welles' singular creative vision and sterling performance in the title role make this thinly veiled (and highly critical) biography of real-life newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst one for the ages.
- 19641h 35mPG8.4 (519K)97MetascoreDirectorStanley KubrickStarsPeter SellersGeorge C. ScottSterling HaydenAn unhinged American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.The definitive film about the insanity of the Cold War, nuclear weapons and Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD—what an apt acronym!), courtesy of the one and only Stanley Kubrick, the peerless Peter Sellers (in three different roles, including the title character) and a solid supporting cast that includes George C. Scott and Slim Pickens ("Yeeeee-hawwww!")
Arthur C. Clarke, who worked with Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey and was a personal friend of Wernher von Braun, writes that Kubrick asked him to "Tell Wernher I wasn't getting at him," but Clarke didn't bother because (a) he didn't believe it for a minute, and (b) even if Stan wasn't, Sellers certainly was. - DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterAfter uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.Kubrick's *other* crowning achievement. No remake yet, though Peter Hyams did make a sequel (2010: The Year We Make Contact), recasting Dr. Floyd with the late, great Roy Scheider and shoehorning in a silly Cold War subplot that wasn't in the novel. Neither Clarke nor Kubrick lived to see the actual year 2010...which may be a good thing considering the supreme irony of the Soviet Union's having been dissolved 19 years earlier, which makes Hyams' film now hideously dated.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsJulie AndrewsChristopher PlummerEleanor ParkerA young novice is sent by her convent in 1930s Austria to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer.The closest anyone's come to remaking Robert Wise's sumptuous film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical was NBC's atrocious 2013 live-TV version, with Carrie Underwood never coming close to being a new Julie Andrews.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsPeter O'TooleAlec GuinnessAnthony QuinnThe story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.David Lean's towering biography of renegade British military genius T. E. Lawrence, with Peter O'Toole in the role that made him a star, is a tough act for anyone to follow...especially as today's audiences probably wouldn't sit still for a film this long any more.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHenry ThomasDrew BarrymorePeter CoyoteA troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.Films like this kept Steven Spielberg from winning any of the "big five" Academy Awards for years until he made Schindler's List...which is a damn shame, because this film deserved all of them.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsLiam NeesonRalph FiennesBen KingsleyIn German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.Speaking of which...The entire world Jewish community would probably rise up in arms against anyone foolhardy enough to try remaking this one. This was the one that finally convinced Motion Picture Academy voters that Spielberg was worth considering for the top Oscars.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsCharlton HestonYul BrynnerAnne BaxterMoses, raised as a prince of Egypt in the Pharaoh's household, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people from slavery.Cecil B. DeMille's monumental motion-picture masterpiece...which is, ironically, itself a remake by DeMille himself of his own earlier silent version from 1923. A star-packed international cast, led by Charlton Heston in his most famous role...plus a literal cast of thousands, and some of the most spectacular sequences ever committed to film, both with and without special effects.
Chosen for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, and winner of an Academy Award for its then-groundbreaking SFX. Although other film versions of the Exodus have been made since (including another film with the same title), none have been explicit remakes of this film.