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6 Reasons That Remakes, Reboots And Sequels Are Totally OK

You may have seen the infographic above posted in a number of places some time last year, lamenting the fact that high-grossing movies in today’s cinematic landscape tend to be attached to stories already in the public consciousness—that there is less quality, original filmmaking coming out for audiences to consume. The only way that may be true is of course if we eliminate the entire independent film system which thrives on the original screenplay and low budget production of original and often off-the-wall material. By that metric, there are more original stories being told on film than ever. The movies making the most money, however, are the tentpole pictures usually tied to a successful introductory film like Iron Man or Pirates of the Caribbean. Building on the success of a hit is obvious less work for a bigger payoff, aka the American Dream.

[h2]4) Stories aren’t sacred[/h2]

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People like to be precious and possessive about stories they have a connection to, and movies make these things permanent in a way theatre can’t. It’s totally understandable why people would be skeptical about a new interpretation of a beloved novel like Gatsby or an adored character like Superman. Many don’t even like seeing their favorite stories get adapted for the screen at all, like we saw in the early criticisms of The Hunger Games. It’s hard not to have a strong personal connection to a story you love, and as with many loving relationships people have with other people or objects, it’s easy to become incredibly possessive of these things. For many people, when you love a movie an exceptional amount, you literally go out and buy and own it.

Legal implications of intellectual property rights aside, no one really owns a movie, or any story. Particularly in the case of movies, there are so many people contributing in small or large portions along the way that assigning one person ownership is a reduction we’ve all come to accept as imperfect but necessary. But when it comes to stories being retold, remade, or expanded upon, there shouldn’t necessarily be anything offensive about someone wanting to contributing to the universe(s) that exist in the cultural consciousness. A story can’t be ruined by its retelling and modification as long as we have the original or otherwise preferred version of the story. Now, if remaking Scarface meant that the Pacino version were to somehow disappear from the face of the earth, that I’d have a problem with. Until that day comes, go crazy, Universal.

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