Examples of genre-swaping remakes?

April 15, 2007 9:40 PM

The trailer for a remake of the John Waters classic Hairspray left me wondering... Are there any other movies out there that were remade in a totally new genre?

Here's the trailer
And yes, the original was a very musical film, but it certainly couldn't be called "a musical" like this remake clearly is.Can anybody think of a precedent for this?

posted by trivirgata to media & arts (46 comments total)

The Philadelphia Story (a romantic comedy from 1940 from a play) was remade as High Society (a musical from 1956).
posted by dobbs at 9:43 PM on April 15, 2007

The Producers.
posted by thebrokenmuse at 9:44 PM on April 15, 2007

Oh, and both Sweet Smell of Success and Sunset Boulevard (b&w noirish dramas from the 50s) were remade as live musicals in the 90s. Thankfully no one filmed them.
posted by dobbs at 9:47 PM on April 15, 2007

The Stepford Wives was remade from a restrained horror thriller into a godawful mess of a "dark" comedy. Garry Marshall claims this was intentional, or at least the genre-hop bit.
posted by cortex at 9:51 PM on April 15, 2007

The Producers

Of course! Perfect example. How could I have overlooked that?

Dobbs: with regard to High Society/Philadelphia Story, they seem to be one step removed from the kind of thing that is going on with Hairspray (and The Producers). I could be wrong though... its been a long time since I saw either of those films.
posted by trivirgata at 9:55 PM on April 15, 2007

Pygmalion (light drama 1938) was reworked into a musical and renamed My Fair Lady (musical - 1964). Pygmailion was first a stage production and then a motion picture, and then reworked and renamed My Fair Lady, which was first a stage production and then a motion picture.
posted by iconomy at 9:56 PM on April 15, 2007

Here's a list of all the shows on Broadway *right now* that were originally movies or books : Beauty and the Beast, The Color Purple, Grey Gardens, Hairspray, Legally Blonde, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, The Producers, Spamalot, Tarzan, Wicked, A Year of Magical Thinking. Xanadu the Musical starts previews in May. This is but a short preview of the looooong list of musicals based on other materials.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:58 PM on April 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm wondering now if I should include Little Shop of Horrors on this list as well. I know nothing about the Roger Corman film that inspired the musical.
posted by trivirgata at 10:01 PM on April 15, 2007

Greta Carbo comedy, Ninotchka, became a musical called Silk Stockings, and later, a film, which starred Cyd Charisse.
posted by missmerrymack at 10:02 PM on April 15, 2007

I would say the 1943 version of Phantom of the Opera. It was a remake of the 1925 silent horror film, but is considered by many to be more of a musical than a horror. I wouldn't consider Schumacher's 2004 version a remake, because it's an adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber play which in turn was adapted right from the original novel.
posted by saraswati at 10:04 PM on April 15, 2007

Err, should be...
and later a film musical, which starred Cyd Charisse.
posted by missmerrymack at 10:05 PM on April 15, 2007

ThePinkSuperhero:
The phenomenon that is so interesting to me is more than Broadway adaptations of previous works, its the idea of one film being remade in a totally new genre while retaining the same story, characters, etc from the original.

Think about the recent musical version of Reefer Madness. I wouldn't consider it a remake of the original, but rather an updated or reinterpreted version.
Hairspray on the other hand, looks like it stays entirely in step with the original, non-musical version (because the Broadway book was remarkably faithful to the original material, IIRC).
posted by trivirgata at 10:10 PM on April 15, 2007

Its interesting that (with the possible exception of Stepford) all of these examples involve musicalization of earlier stories.

What would be great is to find something along the lines of Star Wars refilmed as a western or something. Han Solo, Chewbacca and the rest of the gang doing their thing in the wild west. Or conversely, if Lucas had simply translated Hidden Fortress into English and set it in space.
posted by trivirgata at 10:19 PM on April 15, 2007

with regard to High Society/Philadelphia Story, they seem to be one step removed from the kind of thing that is going on with Hairspray (and The Producers)

How so?
posted by dobbs at 10:21 PM on April 15, 2007

The Front Page was filmed several times, but the most successful version changed one of the main characters from a man to a woman and was redone as a screwball romantic comedy: His Girl Friday.
posted by stopgap at 10:26 PM on April 15, 2007

There are a few classics of transformation that went further than making one of them into a musical:

The Seven Samurai -> The Magnificent Seven
Rio Bravo -> Assault On Precinct 13
posted by rhizome at 10:27 PM on April 15, 2007

How about Henry Hathaway's 1965 western The Sons of Katie Elder and John Singleton's 2005 action/crime drama Four Brothers?
posted by saraswati at 10:27 PM on April 15, 2007

Oh, and isn't The Magnificent Seven a remake of The Seven Samurai as a western?
posted by stopgap at 10:27 PM on April 15, 2007

Also, the various incarnations of the Romeo And Juliet story.
posted by rhizome at 10:29 PM on April 15, 2007

Also, the various incarnations of the Romeo And Juliet story.

But those are adaptations of the original story, not remakes of other films
posted by saraswati at 10:31 PM on April 15, 2007

What would be great is to find something along the lines of Star Wars refilmed as a western or something.

Well, The Seven Samurai was basically westernized as The Magnificent Seven
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:32 PM on April 15, 2007

Just a tad slow with the refresh button.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:33 PM on April 15, 2007

Not sure if this qualifies but Last Man Standing is, according to Wiki(yeah, I know)pedia, an official remake of Yojimbo.
posted by Opposite George at 10:43 PM on April 15, 2007

A Fistful of Dollars is also a remake of Yojimbo.

King Lear > Ran
The Taming of the Shrew > 10 Things I Hate About You
posted by iconomy at 10:48 PM on April 15, 2007

The classic Ronald Coleman fantasy Lost Horizon (1937) was musicalized as the godawful Lost Horizon (1973).
The classic Gary Cooper western High Noon (1952) was remade as the very good sci-fi thriller Outland (1984).
The deMille silent Roxie Hart (1927) was remade as the fun Ginger Rogers comedy of the same name (1942), then Fossilized for the stage as Chicago (1975), which was revived in 1996 and finally brought to 2-D as the overwrought Chicago (2002).
posted by rob511 at 10:59 PM on April 15, 2007

Star Wars itself is heavily influenced by The Hidden Fortress.

Casino Royale was originally made as a comedy, and then as a serious James Bond movie. But both are hypothetically based on the Ian Fleming book.

Here's a good one for you. Maltese Falcon was first made as a forgettable movie in 1931; then it was remade as a comedy in the 1936 Satan Met A Lady; then there was the 1941 Humphrey Bogart version we all know and love. But all three are based on the novel.

I don't understand why movie-->musical of movie-->movie of musical is less genre bending than book-->movie and book-->different kind of movie. Why does the Philadelphia Story/High Society qualify if Romeo & Juliet/West Side Story doesn't? The original Philadelphia Story movie was based on a Broadway play.

Little Shop of Horrors certainly qualifies in the movie-->musical-->movie of musical category.

Clueless remade Emma as a teen comedy; 10 Things I Hate About You remade Taming of the Shrew as a teen comedy. But both original works predate the movies.
posted by commander_cool at 11:06 PM on April 15, 2007

Er, "less genre-bending" should read as "qualify more as genre-bending."
posted by commander_cool at 11:07 PM on April 15, 2007

Raoul Walsh remade his own 1942 noir-ish crime film High Sierra as a western, Colorado Territory, seven years later.
posted by hydatius at 11:32 PM on April 15, 2007

There's The King & I (a musical) and Anna & The King (not a musical).

Also, Planet of the Apes was remade as a musical...on The Simpsons.
posted by granted at 12:17 AM on April 16, 2007

Yojimbo itself is argued to be a "remake" of Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest"
posted by griphus at 12:45 AM on April 16, 2007

Oh, I thought of another one that might sort of fit your criteria: the Evil Dead series, which went from straight horror (Evil Dead) to horror/comedy (Evil Dead II) to total hilarity (Army of Darkness).
posted by granted at 12:51 AM on April 16, 2007

Carrie was a book that became a movie that became a musical.
posted by jrossi4r at 4:07 AM on April 16, 2007

Dangerous Liaisons, a period piece, was remade into Cruel Intentions, a teen drama.
posted by cowbellemoo at 6:19 AM on April 16, 2007

The first thing I thought of when I saw you mention Hairspray was:

La Cage Aux Folles - French play
La Cage Aux Folles - French movie (x 3)
La Cage Aux Folles - Broadway musical
The Birdcage - Hollywood movie
posted by Robert Angelo at 6:32 AM on April 16, 2007

Lets not forget all of the porn movies loosely (ha!) based on hollywood movies.
posted by cowbellemoo at 6:35 AM on April 16, 2007

And parodies, natch.
posted by cowbellemoo at 6:36 AM on April 16, 2007

Lots of good ones in here already. It's interesting to note that, while a number of westerns are remakes of Kurosawa films (also: Sanjuro > For a Few Dollars More), The Seven Samurai was itself influenced by earlier westerns like High Noon.

One story that seems to spawn numerous remakes and reinterpretations is Pride and Prejudice. Bridget Jones' Diary and Bride and Prejudice are two fairly recent examples that spring to mind.
posted by adamrice at 7:25 AM on April 16, 2007

None of them have been actually released, but Trailer Mash recuts trailers along your line of thought: Shining as a warmhearted dad-son pic, Sleepless in Seattle as a stalker flick (especially works because Meg Ryan's crying face looks frightened in the right context), etc.
posted by WCityMike at 7:39 AM on April 16, 2007

La Boheme -> Rent
posted by amtho at 7:54 AM on April 16, 2007

Sorry, you said movies. Rent became a movie, but that's probably not what you meant.
posted by amtho at 7:54 AM on April 16, 2007

Just to clairfy....Hairspray was a movie, then remade as a musical, and now the movie of the musical is being made ---- was not simply a movie, with a musical remake.

Movie -> Musical ->New Movie

The new movie is not filmed in Baltimore. bah!
posted by TuxHeDoh at 8:01 AM on April 16, 2007

Outland with Sean Connery is a remake of High Noon, set in space in the future.
posted by OneOliveShort at 9:13 AM on April 16, 2007

Outland with Sean Connery is a remake of High Noon, set in space in the future.

Someone else said this above but it simply isn't true. High Noon takes place mostly in real time. Outland has a segment in real-time and certainly pays homage to High Noon but is definitely not a remake. If you look at the credits for the film, only one writer is credited and it's not the writer of High Noon. Were it a remake, the original creator would have been credited as insisted by the Writer's Guild of America.
posted by dobbs at 12:52 PM on April 16, 2007

Barb Wire shares its plot, essentially, with Casablanca, almost down to every major plot point.

I Walked with a Zombie is based on Jane Eyre.

The Seven Samurai, and The Magnificent Seven, also heavily influenced Battle Beyond the Stars, including casting Robert Vaughn as essentially the same character.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:15 PM on April 16, 2007

Howard Hawks remade his own Ball of Fire into a musical as A Song Is Born.
posted by hilker at 4:18 PM on April 16, 2007

Thank you, dobbs. I stand corrected. And didn't realize it'd been said already.
posted by OneOliveShort at 11:41 PM on April 16, 2007