Yet another person with a podcast. Oh my goodness. But let me explain.

One of the age-old complaints about movies and Hollywood in general is that there’s no originality left. We see endless remakes, reboots (slightly different), sequels, spinoffs and adaptations. Can’t they come up with anything new?

As I began to dig into this idea, I found some surprising things. Like the fact that Little Shop of Horrors -the musical comedy horror starring Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene? – was actually a remake of a low budget movie from 1960. Did you know that Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is based on a 2002 Hong Kong film Internal Affairs? 1998’s You’ve Got Mail is a remake of The Shop Around the Corner (1940). Ocean’s Eleven (2001) is a remake of Ocean’s Eleven (1960).

A remake of an old movie can bring a classic story to a new audience… and also sometimes make audiences really angry.

That passionate knee-jerk reaction is worth discussing.

I’d love to see more originality in the movie theater. The problem is — those movies have a harder time finding an audience.

Hollywood studios and executives are running a business, and they want to make money. And working with something that has established IP (like a Marvel movie, or a book adaptation, a remake) somewhat guarantees an audience will attend. At the end of the day, they just want to make money and make their shareholders happy. And they want to keep their jobs.

Anyway, my friend Erica Strout and I got talking, usually at work in between setups or at lunch. We met on a reality show TV show with myself working as the camera operator and Erica as my camera assistant. We became fast friends. And then we watched movies together. And had a lot of discussions about film in general.

Now we’re doing the Lights, Camera, Remake! Podcast.

This amazing artwork created by Taylor Rebyanski!

Is it always a bad thing to see a remake of a classic (or possibly unknown) movie? Our podcast looks to break it down and see if there’s merit to Hollywood shirking an original idea for a retelling.

On each episode we’ll look at a movie and its remake, or sometimes a movie and its sequel, to determine if Hollywood rehashed it for a reason or for a cash grab.

Episode 1 is about Solaris (1972) and Solaris (2002).

Solaris is an atmospheric Russian science fiction film based on a book. It was later remade in 2002 starring George Clooney.

You can listen to the episode on Spotify or right here:

Episode 2 is Little Shop of Horrors (1960) and (1986).

Next up this week is Weekend at Bernie’s! The episode will be uploaded on Wednesday, Jan 22.

Follow us on Spotify, Instagram and Facebook!

https://www.instagram.com/lightscameraremakepodcast/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560111332548

We’ve also got an email you can submit ideas, comments or random concerns too. We understand you have those.

LightsCameraRemakePodcast@gmail.com

http://www.screenrant.com/movies-secretly-remakes-surprising/

theenemyofaverage.com/movies-that-are-remakes/