Remakes: Wizard of Oz and It’s Wonderful Life

[Captain Dunsel]

Looks like more remakes are coming our way..

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Is Getting a Modern, More Inclusive Remake - Inside the Magic

Another film is getting the reboot treatment.

insidethemagic.net

'Wizard of Oz' to Get LGBTQ-Inclusive, Racially Diverse Remake

Kenya Barris says he'll write and direct a version that will reflect where the world is now.

news.yahoo.com

 

[GrenadeKing]

 

[JediMichael]

Good thing I don't hardly go to movies anymore, so I won't feel like I'm really missing out on much not seeing any of this new stuff.

 

[cboath]

Cant imagine that these are true. If so, they will fail abysmally. I mean didnt scifi redo oz and it didnt do well there

 

[cboath]

While they are at it, why not kevin hart heaflining a redo of the godfather? And pauly shore in the 10 commandments

 

[batguy]

And pauly shore in the 10 commandments

That project could out-profit anything else Disney has in the works.

I'm not even joking. The story has a massive built-in audience as long as they do a polished & traditional job. It can be mediocre and it will still make XXX dollars in the Bible belt. They won't lose money unless it's downright bad quality (or a "re-imagined" version where Moses is an incompetent jerk and some Mary Sue saves the day).

 

[Apollo]

 

[dascoyne]

 

[ZeroSum]

 

[Bloop]

Both these movies have had remakes before.

I remember watching the gender-swapped made-for-tv version of It's A Wonderful Life starring Marlo Thomas as Mary Bailey (though the character was based on George). It originally aired in 1977 and went by the name It Happened One Christmas. And I don't even know how many remakes The Wizard of Oz has had - it was obviously a book first, and has been turned into a stage musical twice - one based on the 1939 movie and the other being The Wiz. Both of those have had countless productions mounted. And there's the other Wizard of Oz remakes and adaptations for film and TV.

Remakes aren't new, people are just more aware of them now due to the massive overabundance of entertainment media today and the desire to take a few risks as possible by studios. Even the expansion of stuff like the Star Wars and Marvel properties is studios trying to do the same thing as remakes - take an existing property that has an existing fan base and adapt it for the screen. Comics movies adapt storylines that were done in comics all the time, yet we don't even call those "remakes."

So I don't see much reason to get worked up over it. People say they hate remakes/reboots, but there are plenty that make a lot of money. It'll continue regardless of whether you want it to or not.

 

[dascoyne]

It's a Wonderful Life 2024 spoiler: George is saved by Mary's GoFundMe.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

As long as they don’t touch my precious Boogaloo…

May it rest in unsequelized / unremade peace and utter perfection…

 

[batguy]

The course they will take for the 'Wonderful Life' remake is obvious. It's an ethnic minority neighborhood now, George Bailey will be Georgia, etc.


I wonder what they will do with 'Wizard of Oz.' There isn't a clear path begging to be tried with that one. Will it be a modernization of the story? A re-shoot of the 1939 version? A different version set 100 years ago that stays more faithful to the original books?


They made that "Oz, The Great and Powerful" movie about 10 years ago (Sam Riami, James Franco). It was a prequel to the 1939 movie. It was a moderate hit but the payoff was mediocre against the enormous budget.

I imagine the producers of that movie were thinking they could use it as a lead-in. They probably intended to remake the 1939 movie as the 2nd or 3rd entry in a series.

 

[batguy]

BTW this approach has my vote:

 

[dascoyne]

If we're going to do this let's do this right.

 

[Bloop]

Was just posting on the Tron 3 (Tron: Ares) post when I remembered Tron is basically another remake of The Wizard of Oz. I can imagine the original pitch for Tron to Disney was "The Wizard of Oz for the digital age."

 

[Bloop]

The course they will take for the 'Wonderful Life' remake is obvious. It's an ethnic minority neighborhood now, George Bailey will be Georgia, etc.


I wonder what they will do with 'Wizard of Oz.' There isn't a clear path begging to be tried with that one. Will it be a modernization of the story? A re-shoot of the 1939 version? A different version set 100 years ago that stays more faithful to the original books?


They made that "Oz, The Great and Powerful" movie about 10 years ago (Sam Riami, James Franco). It was a prequel to the 1939 movie. It was a moderate hit but the payoff was mediocre against the enormous budget.

I imagine the producers of that movie were thinking they could use it as a lead-in. They probably intended to remake the 1939 movie as the 2nd or 3rd entry in a series.

I totally forgot that film, and also Wicked, the broadway musical based on a book which is based on The Wizard of Oz, which is getting a multi-part movie.

Wicked (2024 film) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I didn't mention it specifically before, but Return To Oz was another Disney attempt at cashing in on the beloved film/book series. As a kid, I saw it but didn't really like that the characters didn't look like the ones I knew from the original movie, and there was no singing. Just shows how influential the 1939 movie was versus the original Frank L. Baum book series.

 

[Solo4114]

As has been noted, these films have been remade plenty of times already. Anyone remember The Wiz? I dug that one growing up. I liked the original a bit better, but I still enjoyed that one. Overall, these movies are old enough that I really just don't care EXCEPT insofar as it just feels like the studios are flailing at this point while also being deathly afraid of taking a ****ing risk and making something new.

I'm cool with inclusiveness and making stuff accessible and appealing to a broader audience, but the flipside of it is that these are films that are probably gonna amount to something like $40M-100M (the latter for The Wizard of Oz) that could've gone to doing something new AND inclusive. But no, we can't have new things.

 

[Laspector]

I'll take Return to Oz over the 1939 movie any day. I hate musicals. Even watching as a kid I was like "Just finish the darn song and get on with the movie!"
Plus, all that vaudeville style over acting never set well with me.
All that said tho, yeah, it is still a classic.

 

[Astyanax]

I'll take Return to Oz over the 1939 movie any day. I hate musicals. Even watching as a kid I was like "Just finish the darn song and get on with the movie!"
Plus, all that vaudeville style over acting never set well with me.
All that said tho, yeah, it is still a classic.

I'm totally with you, pal. I felt that way until I lost a bet and someone made me watch Madonna's Evita. What an amazing, compelling movie, with only one or two lines of non-singing dialogue (for impact). I am NOT a Madonna fan, but the movie helped me look past the pop culture aspects and really appreciate her pure singing talent. It completely converted me and now I love musicals, and enjoyed revisiting Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, among others.

Consider giving Evita a try. I was hooked within 10 minutes, thanks to Antonio Banderas.