How to Remake

Bizarre title i know, but i recently watched the Peter Jackson remake of King Kong, and had to compile a list of remakes for the cinema club. I was inclined to discover what makes a successful remake. Many films, such as scarface and The Italian Job are remakes often without people knowing that they are, and with significant plot changes.

King Kong has been remade twice, once during the seventies, starring Jessica Lange as Ann Darrow, and then again in 2005, starring Naomi Watts as the leading lady. In both cases, the films were a technological improvement on their predecessors, however the films do not promote technology for technologies sake, in the 2005 the same technology is used to animate Kong as was used to animate Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, the result of this is the Kong becomes an actual character in the movie, and not just a monster or villain. The character is incredibly expressive, and has a personality and a motive, we understand his actions, and the deep love he has for Ann. He also looks fantastic, and it as scarred and gashed as an animal who has battled dinosaurs would be.

Ann Darrow and the beast (2005)

Often when remaking films, times plots and themes are updated, the seventies remake of King Kong updated the plot to modern new york, and featured Kong climbing the twin towers instead of the Empire State Building. The remake of Scarface updated the plot to feature cocaine smuggling instead of bootlegging, and The Italian Job was updated to modern day Los Angeles, with the plot featuring modern technology and spy equipment. The successes of these remakes relies mainly on the fact that they reference the originals without being shot-for-shot remakes, The Italian Job retains the iconic Mini car chase whilst updating the plot and location, and King Kong references the iconic nature of the character and the final scene, whilst adding much to the plot in the way of action.

Scarface (1983)

There is of course a way not to remake, Gus Van Sant produced a much derided shot-for-shot remake of iconic film Psycho. The problem with these kind of remakes is that they don't add anything to the source materiel, and don't provide the audience with any more insight into any of the characters. The success of a remake relies on insight, homage and iconography, and the ability to add something to the source material that was previously missing.