Can anything be eventually a remake?

[MirrorMask]

Some food for thought about how the cinema and TV series industry will go forward in the future.... we've seen our fair share of remakes of classics of when our parents were young; currently it's running in the theaters a new version of Mary Poppins, and when I was a little kid the original was already old, and there's also off the top of my head a new Ben Hur which, back in the day, was one of the hallmarks of cinema when it was still "young".

Do you think that the classics of our generations, even TV series, can and will eventually be remade by future generations, or there's something that is so unique that you can't imagine being replicated 50 years from now?

Some examples:

MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

I guess they will pump out these movies until we all die, and our children won't see the end of the series, but can you imagine a total reboot of it? a new series that starts off like the current MCU did introducing one by one all the characters to build up eventually a new universe?

LORD OF THE RINGS

The defining epic of a generation, and at the time a wondrous accomplishment of technology. Obviously already now the technology is different from when it was made, do you think that in 20-30 years we'll have a new trilogy?

HARRY POTTER

Even trickier, with 8 films in the series. Everyone agrees that, save some details here and there, the series came out fantastic. When the whole generation that lived through it will be old, do you think someone will make a 22th century version of Harry Potter? maybe with a cameo of future 70 years old Daniel Radcliffe to play an old wizard of something?

GAME OF THRONES

A TV series that will go down in history for the sheer scope of the project, and the cultural phenomenon it has become. Say that George RR Martin finishes the series (personally I doubt it, eventually The Winds of Winter will come out, but I don't think he'll ever finish the last book), do you think someone down the line will think "hey, what about we remake Game of Thrones now that we know how to make it more faithful to the books?"

[gmillerdrake]

If there’s any chance that money can/will be made from remaking it......they will remake it. I could especially see LOTR and GOT being remade in about 40 years. Who knows what the technology will be by then that’ll make the experience better.....and.....they will be able to make $$$ off of it so I’m thinking it’s almost a certainty they’ll do it.

[Chino]

This is an interesting thing to think about, and I think a big thing to consider is how the viewing technology will change in addition to the filming technology. If we get to the point where there are holodecks in the center of living rooms, I could totally see things being remade just to utilize that type of display, and I see no problems with that. I mean, how amazing would it be to watch a scene like Battle of the Bastards while having the ability to zoom in and out, rotate, and move around the battlefield seamlessly in real time? 

Also, you just need to consider the times. I get that things are classic, but new generations like what they like. As a child, you couldn't pay me to watch the original Little Rascals, but the 90s movie was in my top 10 as a kid. It was in color, and I was able to relate to the characters in the modern day one more easily. It had nothing to do with the old ones not being good, and I don't necessarily see it as a kick in the nuts to the originals if they're remade (Except the Sandlot reboot. Fuck that movie). I see this often with the new CGI Disney remakes. Can you really blame kids for not wanting to watch the old Lion King or Fantasia when there are competing animated films that, to a child, look much more engaging and vibrant? I can't blame a kid for wanting to watch the new Beauty and the Beast over the original. You need to keep in mind who the remake is being made for. I am convinced that if there was ever to be a BTTF remake, there's nothing they could do to make me enjoy it and not compare it to the original with every camera angle change. But in 50 years time, a kid 2070 isn't going to be able to relate to anything in that movie, and you can't really hold it against them. But it's still a fun story to tell, and I don't see the harm with retelling the story from the perspective modern day.

[MirrorMask]

Indeed, all valid points.

There's a moment for movies and they can't be timeless, no matter how good they are. I never saw Goonies as a kid, a friend who is a huge fan of the movie insisted I should watch it and I did... ok, cool, but I saw it as an adult, no way my experience could have been as good as kids who saw it back in the '80s for the first time.

I also never watched Blues Brothers, I enjoyed it eventually but I realized that it just had to be watched back in the day.

I absolutely agree that kids would prefer what they are more used to in terms of current technology rather than go back to the original Cinderella and Fantasia, that's why every generation there could come around a new wave of modern (for now, future) remakes. I proposed just the most blatant examples of what is so defining for our generation to think how they could be remade - maybe it's crazy to think of a whole new Harry Potter series, but there will come a time when no young kid will have experienced the books or the movies in real time, and that's when the idea for a remake will kick in.

[ChuckSteak]

I think there probably will be remakes, since the industry main interest is money, not content.

When I read the topic title I thought the topic would be about if something can ever be original, like.. some time in the future there will be too much movies and one could relate at least one to another one and so on. So the question of being authentic comes in. And I think there is no limit to that. There are so many movies out there that are completely unique. It is funny that most of them are old and the best movies are by far the old. But slowly it go too generic and the focus became money, remakes, sequels, prequels, jerk-me-offs. And the cinema of today is a clear picture of that. In no other time in history has there been so much remakes and sequels. Or people saying "ah women are getting more powerful and getting equal right, let's make a movie about a female superhero" or "lets make a remake of Ghostbusters and Ocean's Eleven only with women!" or "Gay people are slowly getting accepted and being understood and it is a huge topic, so let's make a movie about two men who fall in love", etc, etc, etc. In other words, they follow whatever the trends are around the world and make a movie about it. And that is not new. To create something unique you can't follow rules and you can't follow anything, but your own artistic expression and creativity in movement.

If you look at music, it is the same trend. Lots of garbage. Everywhere. To find the interesting, you have to dig. Sometimes very deep.

[ariich]

I can definitely see a lot of big current movies and movie franchises being remade as TV shows, as has already been happening. TV is a different form of storytelling, with slower and deeper character development (when done well, obviously) so there's scope to tell richer stories.