With all the remakes and reboots we’ve been getting lately of well-known and beloved classics, I figured it was time to look up some lesser-known or not so well done movies that should get remade. Hopefully by remaking them, they might actually turn out good, unlike the current remakes, which ended up turning out being worse than the originals (For most of them, anyways. I’m sure a couple are actually just as good as the originals, but that’s a topic for another time). So, with Hollywood getting into remaking movies yet again, here is a list of books that deserve a second chance at the silver screen, or just need to be updated (there’s more out there, if they bother to look).
- Land of Oz
With Oz having got something of a reboot with Oz: The Great and Powerful, Hollywood should be more than ecstatic to have fourteen books ready to be made into movies. Some stories could very well be left out, others could be brought together into one movie. Did you know that L. Frank Baum actually wrote the first screenplays for the series? Which means this should be pretty easy to do. Not to mention it was one of his greatest dreams to have his books made into movies. Let’s make his dream come true!
- The Nutcracker
When all the Christmas decorations, lights, music, and movies come out, it cannot help but bring to mind one of the most well-known ballets, The Nutcracker. Having been based on a children’s story, this classic has been made into many movies, most of which were not very well done, or are not very well known. Barbie in the Nutcracker got it very close, and while the most recent live-action Disney adaptation wasn’t the worst version ever, it still needed some better writing and directing. I haven’t seen all the others, and those who have grown up with certain versions will always see theirs with the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia. It’s time to redo this classic, and this time, let’s do it right.
- The Last Unicorn
Rumors of a live-action version of this classic children’s tale have been running around the internet for years. Nothing has been seen of the adaptation, though, besides the Rankin-Bass cartoon starring the voices of Mia Farrow, Jeff Bridges, and Christopher Lee. This cartoon was pretty-well done, though it is hardly known now. Hopefully they will get the live-action movie done soon, so that another cult classic can grace the silver screen. Maybe Peter Jackson can direct? He did a superb job with The Lord of the Rings. If he brings the same care and attention to The Last Unicorn as he did to The Lord of the Rings, this will stand at the top of fantasy movies right alongside The Lord of the Rings.
- The NeverEnding Story
The last time this was made into a movie, it managed to squeeze out a couple of sequels, none of which were very well done, much less in tune with the book. There have been rumors going around that there will be a reboot of this story, though it looks like we’ll have to wait a while to see how that goes. Maybe we could fit the whole book into one movie this time, or at the very least, have back-to-back releases like The Lord of the Rings did if it needs to be split into two or three movies? Having Bastian played by three different actors is kind of jarring if you’re watching all three back to back.
- The Spiderwick Chronicles
Many fans of the books were disappointed with how this movie turned out. Even people who had never read the books were disappointed (how bad is that?), indicating that they really did not do as well a job as they thought they could. Sure, it wasn’t a complete failure, but it could have been so much better.
- The Princess and the Goblin
Another children’s classic that was sort of successfully made into a cartoon, complete with corny songs, over-the-top action scenes, and several other changes that apparently made it worse. Curdie’s character is just one of those you can tell is completely different between the book and the movie, among other things. So why was it sort of successful? Despite all of its problems, it was memorable and still fun to watch. This is a classic that definitely deserves a second chance because of the originality of the author, George MacDonald, and for the simple fact that he inspired both Tolkien and Lewis to write their stories that we enjoy today. It is definitely worth revisiting one of the favorite stories of some of our favorite authors.
- Captains Courageous
There are three movie versions of this lesser-known book by Rudyard Kipling, and the only one still somewhat known is the version with Mickey Rooney as Dan. The other two were TV movies that probably aired only once and were never heard of again (except on Wikipedia). This story is like Rudyard Kipling’s tribute to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (just without the pirates); a boy learns about the life of fishermen as they help him get back home . . . the long way around. It’s chock full of close encounters of the squid kind, a run-in with ghostly superstition, and a crew of diverse, soggy men, each unique and different but working together like a well-oiled machine.
- The Dark is Rising
The main reason why this series should get a second chance is because of the fact that the author was kicked out of the project half-way through and had to sit back and watch her masterpiece get butchered for the big screen, all in the name of “originality”. The director thought the books were sounding too much like Harry Potter, yet the changes he made to the movie made it seem even more like a gamer’s version of Harry Potter instead of less like it. The original novels do have an 11-year-old finding out he has magical powers on his birthday, but that’s where the similarities end. For one thing, Will Stanton found out about his powers long before Harry Potter was even thought of, and then there’s the fact that Will has to find elemental artifacts to help him stop the full onslaught of the Darkness. There’s more that follows (meeting Arthur and Merlin) that would be great on film, if done right and with the author still on board with production of her work.
- Chronicles of Prydain
Disney still has the rights to this series, and apparently doesn’t want to let go of it despite the flop of a cartoon they made (even though many remember it fondly). The series of novels, written by Lloyd Alexander, is something of a Celtic version of The Lord of the Rings for children. It does have its dark moments, though, surprisingly, not as dark as the Disney version made it out to be. Yes, the cartoon could have been worse, but it could have been much better too. This will be a good series to turn to when our appetites for something similar to The Lord of the Rings needs fulfilling (The Iron Tower trilogy is another good series to turn to).
- Nancy Drew/ Hardy Boys
Two well-known and well-loved series that were started in the mid-30’s for teens and young adults, one geared more for boys, the other for girls. Several TV series were made, but only one is still fairly well-known, The Hardy Boys/ Nancy Drew Mysteries series from the late 70’s starring Pamela Sue Martin, Shaun Cassidy, and Parker Stevenson. Then, of course, there is the Nancy Drew movie starring Emma Roberts, the recent movie with Sophia Lillis, and the CW series starring Kennedy McMann, all of which have received mixed reviews, the CW show getting the worst of it (and for good reason). But while the movies actually show a teen girl who is fascinated by mysteries and enjoys solving them, the CW show is more like Supernatural 2.0, just with a well-known female detective who used to be able to solve cases quite well on her own without the aid of ghosts. And there’s the problem of it not even using the source material for episodes, just for Easter eggs, just something to reference in an attempt to make fans of the books happy. But while there are so many books to do movies and TV series on that it might seem overwhelming, there’s at least a lot to work with, which should make it easy for a series. The Hardys, on the other hand, haven’t had as much as Nancy since the 1990’s series done by a Canadian studio for both, despite the boys being about as big as Nancy in terms of popularity in book clubs. Either way, both series deserve actual adaptations of the books instead of a constant attempt to upgrade them every ten to twenty years with a brand-new mystery.
And that’s just ten books off the top of my head that should get remade into movies. I know there’s more out there, and that’s not even including the books that haven’t been made into movies yet that should be. That being said, one can’t help but wonder if something’s wrong with Hollywood, remaking the good ones and almost make them worse while there are movies that should be remade and aren’t even touched. Maybe it’s time for Hollywood to take a break from making movies. Even creative people need to take a break from their work. But that’s a topic for another time.