by Mark Morris

Created on: February 19, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

As a film maker and screenwriter I hope I may live to see the day that one of my own ideas sparks the imagination with such force that someone, someday wants to remake it!

But, love 'em or hate 'em they're here to stay.In fact if you really want to know what you think on the subject educate yourself a little with a trip to movie_remakes.com. You might be surprised at what you find.

Film itself is only a "remix", as it were of the earlier live theatre format familiar to Americans of bygone generations. In its infancy almost all of its plot lines were borrowed from the stage. Take William Shakespeare for example, who stole most of his plots, now we see him rehashed on almost a daily basis in one form or another.

Most of the entertainment we see is at least a derivative of something else. The question is, should that be the case. I was of the opinion until recently that Hollywood was just getting lazy, rehashing the same old stuff. But now I realize that there are only so many ways to tell boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl without bumping into somebody else's work.

When it comes to straight remakes I tend to like them or not with about the same frequency as the other films I see. It depends more on the acting and directing. I do believe , however, that if you have nothing new to say you should probably just be quiet.

When it comes to the complete reworking of an older movie into a "new" work I become a bit more suspicious. If the story was good enough to steal, why rewrite it? Perhaps the director was afraid that their work would suffer in the comparison. Or could it be that they truly had no original ideas? Either way if you blatantly plagiarize without giving credit to the original author that is a mark against you in my book.

I, for one, do not see this as a new phenomenon. I hear many people mention Hitchcock as a don't touch item. I wonder if many of you knew that he himself remade many of his own movies after coming over from England to Hollywood?

Yes that's right, Mr. "never edit anything because he planned it perfectly the first time Hitchcock" second guessed himself when he got the chance to remake them in color with bigger budget, etc.

For those of you who feel that remakes are boring, shut up, sit down and write us something new. After all Sylvester Stalone has built a thirty year career out of his first screenplay, Rocky.

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