9 Movies Ripe For Remake

Some movies I love—like Last of the Mohicans and It’s a Wonderful Life—were not named because one shouldn’t mess with perfection.

Hollywood keeps cranking out superhero stories. They’re fun.

But wouldn’t something with stories revolving around people who were heroic without wearing capes and possessing super powers be refreshing?

So, Movie Makers, I challenge you.

Look at my list and think about remaking these movies that were remarkable and still thrilling in today’s world. Why not get the rights to some of these stories?

1. LadyHawke

OMG! Someone please, please, please remake this 1985 fantasy movie. You’ll see it’s number 1 on my list. Or at least re-score it and do away with the awful 80′s soundtrack.

The original starred a very young Matthew Broderick, the gorgeous Rutger Hauer in his prime, and Michelle Pfeiffer in a story of jealous rage and an evil curse.

2. 3 Days of the Condor

This 1975 political thriller starred Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. Amazon Prime recently added it to their Prime Movies list. I watched it and was surprised what a good action thriller it was with a story completely believable in light of all the political machinations in the last several decades.

Had to call “Ew” on the sex scene with Dunaway’s character so complacent. If they’d placed the scene after their attempted murder, it would have been believable. Update the tech in it and the “Ew” scene, find a charismatic leading man, and you’d have a winner.

3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

A 1977 Spielberg science fiction movie starring Richard Dreyfuss that everyone on the planet knows. I always love a good science fiction movie. I happened to love the 2016 flick Arrival starring Amy Adams. I didn’t think it was difficult to understand at all. Remake Close Encounters with the kind of special effects that can be done now but keep the optimistic air it had.

4. The Conversation

From 1974 comes this slow burn thriller written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring the remarkable Gene Hackman. This was the beginning of the slippery slope of privacy rights and surveillance. The moral issue of privacy versus government spying was revisited in the 1998 film Enemy of the State, directed by Tony Scott, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and written by David Marconi. The film also starred Gene Hackman along with Will Smith and Jon Voight. I could see that moral issue being revisited.

5. Used Cars

Directed by Robert Zemeckis years before Back to the Future, this satirical black comedy, a cult favorite from 1980, starred Kurt Russell, one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood.

Russell has political aspirations but for now, he sells used cars. Everyone who ever bought a used car identifies with this movie.

This film has Jack Warden, Frank McRae, Gerrit Graham, and Michael McKean.  Sometimes it’s shown on TV, but the funniest scenes are always deleted because they’re not PG! A remake would find an audience.

6. Marathon Man

“Is it safe?” This is the movie that caused patients all over America to cancel their dental appointments when it premiered. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, and Marthe Keller, it was released in 1974.

Actually, I guess I should pull it from my list because it’s about infamous evil Nazis and well-known atrocities. I guess it would have to be a “historical” film. It’s a gripping story—no surprise there because it was written by William Goldman (The Princess Bride and other remarkable stories).

7. Sneakers

Amazon Prime added this 1992 film which introduced the subject of hackers and how they can screw up someone’s life to their list a few months ago.

Starring Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier and David Strathairn, it’s ripe for remaking. The subject of covert spy groups and the race to be the first with technology is even more viable now. Update the tech, get a great cast, and you’d have a hit.

8. The Parallax View

This 1974 political/corporate greed film starring Warren Beatty had some flaws, but its conspiracy theory premise is ever present. Definitely ripe for remake.

9. Highlander

The cult favorite from 1986 needs to be remade. Keep the Queen music, find another brooding, sexy actor like Christopher Lambert to play Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod, an eternally sexy Scotsman like Sean Connery (maybe Pierce Brosnan?), and a big guy like Clancy Brown to be the evil nemesis who wants to be the only one. Go for it! I—and probably every woman alive—would buy a ticket.

Takeaway Truth

What the movies above have in common is great story.

Take the story, add great acting and directing, and update the tech and pop culture as needed.

You’d end up with intelligent movies for today’s world.