A film remake is a

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

based on a previous production. The concept is popular with

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; how ...

s and production companies because it reduces the

financial risk Financial risk is any of various types of risk associated with financing, including financial transactions that include company loans in risk of default. Often it is understood to include only downside risk, meaning the potential for financi ...

s, as fans of the original work are likely to want to see something similar to the film they already like. In some cases, the producer or studio which made the original film still retains the

film rights Film rights are rights under copyright law to produce a film as a derivative work of a given item of intellectual property. In US law, these rights belong to the holder of the copyright, who may sell (or " option") them to someone in the film indus ...

, so doesn't require a new film option or need to develop a new story, reducing the financial cost. Remakes are sometimes near copies, such as the 1952 '' The Prisoner of Zenda'', nearly identical to the 1937 black-and-white version, but shot in Technicolor; and ''Psycho'' (1998), a

shot-for-shot Shot-for-shot (or shot-for-shot adaptation, shot-for-shot remake) is a way to describe a visual work based on an existing work that is transferred almost completely identically from the original work without much interpretation. Production use ...

color remake of the black-and-white ''Psycho'' (1960). More frequently they introduce some changes or new elements e.g. in the original '' The Front Page'' (1931), a male newspaper editor tries to keep his male star reporter from quitting; in the remake '' His Girl Friday'' (1940), the reporter is female and the editor's ex-wife. '' Black Caesar'' (1973) is a

blaxploitation In American cinema, Blaxploitation is the film subgenre of action movie derived from the exploitation film genre in the early 1970s, consequent to the combined cultural momentum of the black civil rights movement, the black power movement, ...

retelling of '' Little Caesar'' (1931). Technological advances can allow a remake to include features that were not possible at the time the original was made. A silent film can be remade as a "

talkie A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed befo ...

", a black-and-white movie can be remade in color, or a 2D motion picture can be remade as a

3D film 3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of special glasses worn by viewers. 3D films were prominently featured in the 1950s in American cinema and later experienced a worldwide r ...

. Several

animated film Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

s have been remade as

live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

productions, such as ''Alice in Wonderland'' (2010) and ''Cinderella'' (2015). Remakes can be made in different languages or in a different setting. The English-language color film '' The Magnificent Seven'' (1960) is a remake of the Japanese black-and-white film ''

Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai action film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay co-written with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. Taking place in 1586 in the Sengoku period of Japanese history, it follows the story of a villag ...

'' (1954), transferring the story from

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

Japan to the American

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

. Musical remakes have been made, such as ''Lost Horizon'' (1973), a musical fantasy version of ''Lost Horizon'' (1937), originally a drama.

Examples

* List of film remakes (A–M) * List of film remakes (N–Z) * List of English-language films with previous foreign-language film versions * List of remakes and adaptations of Disney animated films

References

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