1. Remakes & Production Factors Which Influence Them
There are many reasons why directors create remakes of old movies. One of which is if the thing that
they are remaking is popular at the moment for example if there is a particular comic book that is
selling well they will make a movie that uses that storyline . This is what they have done with the
Batman. By doing this it will also sell the merchandise more than they would usually would and there
is a chance that if the like the remake they would then go back and watch the original which will get
them more money. Another reason would be the advance of new technology. If the director thinks
that he can do a better job with the new technology that is now available they may make a remake
of the movie. This is what was done with the movie Dredd .Another reason is if there is a particular
genre of movie that is popular at the time they will make a remake to provide for the need of that
genre. Or if there is a key star that they want to get into a role they will make a remake for that this
was done in the film Carrie. Another thing is the trends if there is something that is doing very well
at the time of the production like a book then they will make a movie about it. For example the
novel 50 shades of grey sold a lot of copy’s so recently they have produce a movie of that book to
attract the audience of it to watch the movie.
Judge Dredd (Danny Cannon 1995) was a film that was then
made as squeal called Dread (Pete Travis 2012) . Dredd Is set in
the ruins of the new world where crime is a lot more frequent so
a group called Judges are set to keep control in the streets .The
main characters Dredd(Karl Urban) is ordered to manage a new
recruit Anderson(Olivia Thirlby). They are set on a job to deal
with a homicide case which leads to them being trapped in an
apartment block and attacked by a group of drug deals. So they
climb up the apartment block to kill their leader Ma-Ma (Lena
Headey)
The film Dredd was made into a remake for several different reasons. The first
reason is because of the advance of technology in the 17 years between the two
movies . The new special effect within the new movie are tones better than they
was in the old version this gives the audience a better feeling of what the time
period what the movie was set was like . An example of this is in Dredd the view
of the city slums was scene shot in south Africa with future buildings adding in in
post-production. Where as in Judge Dredd the scene was all shot in a isolated
studio that tends to give a Claustrophobia effect to the movie that was not good.
The main effect that was used in Dredd was uses a RED MX, SI2K and Phantom
Flex high-speed cameras this allow them to get a super slow Mo on a lot of the
shots going up to 3000 frames per second . This was praised by the fans saying
that It worked well at representing the comic books. This is something that they
could of never of dreamed of being able to do in 1995.By doing this the review of
the movie got a lot better than the previous one because of it looking much more
like the comic .
Another reason why this was done was for the sake of synergy so that they can get more money
from the merchandise of the francize. For example if people watch this Dredd and then enjoy it then
they may end up buying Judge Dredd to see what the original is like . They may also go out and buy
the comics . they will then get more money from all of these industry’s so there income of money
2. Remakes & Production Factors Which Influence Them
will be increased dramatically. Another example of this happening is recently the graphic novels of
Dredd have returned as a weekly comic . By doing this people will then look back at the Judge Dredd
films again.
Rec (Jaume Balagueró 2007) was another film that was given a remake but this time
it is for a different reason. Because Rec was so popular I Spain Sony wanted to bring
it into the US . But since the film was in Spanish they did not think that it would
make as much money if they left it like that .So Sony who is a vertical intergrade
company who gets profit out of production, distributing and exhibiting a movie since
they are such a large company where as Filmax International is an independent
company they do not have another money to both make the movie and distribute
the movie as well .Sony then bought the rights to use the film Rec. So they decided
to make a remake of the film for the American audiences that is when they made
the new remake Quarantine(John Erick Dowdle 2008). This was a shot by shot
remake with only some slight differences with the only manger change were the
langue was changed from Spanish to English. Screen Gems where the company that
bought the rights to the film rec and screen gems are owned by Sony.
Since Sony own the right to both quarantine and Rec that means that they was
profiting from both of them. There came a point in the US where both the original and
the remake was both being played at the same time in the cinema . If people watched
the remake and enjoyed it then they would then go and watch the original one to see
if it is any better . When the both movies where released as DVD since Sony bought
the rights to own them Sony made money from both of the movies. This means that
they was making money from people who preferred the original movie this was
because Sony did all the distribution of the movie in the US .
The reason why the movie Rec was thought to be so good was the uses of the style of
filming that they used in the movie. This style was called found footage which is a full point of view
filming from the characters in the movie using a camcorder. I think because this film did so well at
this style other movies tried the copy the same effect. With things like clover field (2008 Matt
Reeves) this did reusable well at the box office and got some good reviews. I think the reason why
clover field was made was because the found footage movies was doing well with rec and diary of
the dead in 2005 so they thought because of the trends at the time worked well with the audience
and is a trend that they think would do well at the time of production .The use of all of these movies
brought on inspiration for a large movie francize called Paranormal Activity (2007) this got a lot of
attention this is because the audience enjoyed the trend at the time ,but now the later movie in the
serious have not done too good this is because the public have got slightly board of
the genre since there is a lot of movies that are like this now.
Company’s such as Sony uses horizontal integration in order to make more money for
their company. An example of them doing this would be when they bought the movie
production company Columbia. When Sony bought Columbia they looked through
the roster of movie and saw that they have made Karaite Kid in 1984 which seemed
to sell quite well. So in 2010 Sony told them to make a remake of it with Will smith
and Jaden Smith. This did very well at the box office making almost triple the amount
3. Remakes & Production Factors Which Influence Them
that the original made. Another example of this happening is with Columbia is with the movie Annie.
The original Annie was made in 1982 when Columbia was an independent company although this
movie did not do well at box office it did well selling on video. When they joined. up with Sony they
was told to make a remake of it in 2014 this made double there budget and twice the amount of
money than the original at box office but it has not done as well at selling to homes .
The War Of The Worlds movies was release because of political
factors that was going on at the time of the release of the movie
.When the original War Of The Worlds in 1953 America was faceting
a crises with Russia which was causing a lot of tension between the
two countries. At this time the US was paranoid that the red army
may invade. So this movie was released as the aliens being a
metaphor as being the Russians. Whereas in the newer version that
was released in 2005 there was another recent threat in the US with
9/11 happening not long ago. The aliens in this version was meant
to represent the terrorist that was in the US that why the missions
was underground they was living among them without tem even
knowing .The 200 war of the worlds also had star therapy in the
movie with Tom curse starting in the movie .This means that since
he is a big actor with a lot of popularity he will draw in a larger audience because
he is in the movie.
One final reason why remakes are made is the social regelation factors that are in movies for
example in 1967 Stanley Kubrick produced a movie based on the novel by Nabokov Lolita. The movie
was about a man falling in love with is young step daughter this has always been a controversial
topic even today ,but back then It was even worst this movie did terrible at the box office with not
many people going to see it . A few years later in 1997 when the world has found it more acceptable
for the people to talk about a subject like this. Knowing this Adrian Lyne release a remake of this
movie. This did a lot better than the original since people was more willing to go and watch the
movie.
In conclusion film company’s make remakes for financial reasons if produces think they will make
more money from the production and synergy of previously made movies they will make them as a
remake in order to make a larger income of money .
