Remake

A remake is a film based on a previously released film or a previously filmed original. Remakes have been common since film's inception and are made for a variety of reasons, but especially often for commercial reasons, and are not infrequently controversial. There are various types and subcategories of remakes, and it is not always possible to clearly distinguish between them. Closely related to the remake is the reboot: If a successful film is turned into a cinema series (such as Spider-Man), this is often continued from the beginning with a reboot.

History

Already since the beginning of film, ideas or entire films have been offered to the audience again as remakes. For example, L'Arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat (1895), one of the Lumière brothers' first films, is seen as a template for remakes by rival film production companies Empire State Express (Bioscope, 1896) and Black Diamond Express (Edison, 1896). ^{, p. 89} As the film toured the countries as a fairground attraction in the years that followed, remakes were commonplace. For example, local entrepreneur Ludwig Stollwerck financed a remake at Cologne's main train station. The reason for this was not only the desire to copy successful and popular films made by others, but also the consumption of film negatives. As film became more complex from the 1900s onwards and a slowly developing authorship of filmmakers led to legal disputes, more and more modified remakes helped to formulate the first film genres. ^{, S. 91}

In subsequent years, remakes were produced in the film industry for several reasons: Successful films often offered a guarantee of success for the remake. The purchased, expensive rights to an original were exploited several times to increase profits. Thus, in the 1930s and 1940s, remakes by the same studio were often made within a few years of each other. Technical innovations, such as sound film, colour film, Cinemascope or computer-aided special effects, were also tested and introduced by using already successful films as templates. The threat of new media such as television or video also led to increased production of remakes. The high number of remakes until the 1950s is also attributed to the understanding of producers and viewers at the time, who saw films only as a current product.

An artistic ambition can also be seen as the reason for many remakes. This is especially evident in cases where the director remakes his own films, such as Alfred Hitchcock. Other successful films that are important to the artistic development of film are also remakes. For example, the classic film noir The Trail of the Falcon (1941) was the third film adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's material after The Maltese Falcon (1931) and The Satan and the Lady (1936).

New adaptations that adapt the original to another genre or to the development of a genre can also be considered under this aspect. In general, new highs of a genre often go hand in hand with remakes of genre classics. For example, following successful remakes and adaptations of classic horror novels in American horror cinema in the 1990s (including Bram Stoker's Dracula), a large number of remakes of 1970s American horror films (including Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and The Omen (2006)) were in cinemas from the 2000s onwards.

Today, remaking is particularly associated with modern Hollywood film, although remaking has been and continues to be practiced frequently in other film countries and throughout the history of film. This has mainly to do with the dominant position of American cinema. The tradition of releasing remakes of non-English language films as "Americanized" versions, often shortly after the release of the successful original, is attributed to American viewers' rejection of dubbing and subtitles.

Exemplary remakes

→ see list of new film adaptations

• Ben Hur: The successful 1880 novel Ben Hur, which tells the story of the fictional Jewish prince Judah Ben Hur, has been filmed four times. The 1925 versions in particular, starring Ramón Novarro in the title role, and the 1959 version starring Charlton Heston, are known as two of the most successful films in American film history, and were praised especially for their staging of the chariot race. William Wyler's 1959 version also won eleven Oscars.
• Psycho: The remake Psycho caused a sensation in 1998 because director Gus Van Sant undertook a very stringent form of remake. He adapted Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho, which is considered a classic of the psychological thriller, in almost every shot and with unchanged dialogue and film music.
• Infamous: Director William Wyler had already filmed the play The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman, about two teachers suspected of having a lesbian relationship, in 1936 under the title Three Theses. However, he had to make so many changes to the script at the time due to pressure from the film studio United Artists, who feared a ban because of the subject matter, that he made a remake in 1961, which he claimed at the time was actually the first film adaptation of The Children's Hour.
• King Kong and the White Woman, a film about the love between a woman and a giant gorilla, was already made in 1933 and attracted many sequels due to its success. In 1976, King Kong was remade under John Guillermin with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange. Despite good reviews, the film was not financially successful. 29 years later, director Peter Jackson, best known for The Lord of the Rings film series, ventured to make another film adaptation. King Kong hit theaters in 2005 with Naomi Watts, Jack Black, and Adrien Brody, and was again a huge success since the original. The film grossed more than 550 million US dollars.
• Funny Games: Funny Games is a 1997 film directed by Michael Haneke from Austria, it was remade as Funny Games U.S. by himself in 2007.