Nothing New?

As I write this column between snowstorms in New York, I'm especially looking forward to June 11, 2010, when director Joe Carnahan's A-Team movie will be released. Until recently, though, I had the same complaints about remakes and updates as I've heard from many viewers: "Why does Hollywood insist on remaking the classics? Doesn't anyone have an original idea anymore?"

To understand the rationale behind remakes, it helps to view them not only as movies or TV shows, but also as forms of entertainment. We all become attached to favorites and resist "new" spins on them, but adaptation is as old as the first embellishment on the first story ever told. As uncreative as "remake" sounds, the freedom to build on previous works is key to creativity. It's not just a trend that will pass. Only lately has it come to be called "reimagining".

The term "homage" sounds less radical than remake or update, but it describes the same act of adaptation. Robert B. Parker's Spenser began as an homage to Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, but went on to develop attitudes and relationships of his own. The iconic Marlowe was himself a combination of many private eye characters Chandler wrote about in short stories. Where would P.I. fiction be had Chandler not been allowed to use his previous work as inspiration? Similarly, the most popular film adaptation of The Maltese Falcon , starring Humphrey Bogart, was not the first version filmed.

As with literary characters, fan interest in TV and movie characters outlives the original actors and creators. For producers and screenwriters, a takeoff on an existing idea has a built-in audience, including those who claim they don't want to see the remake made. In today's ongoing recovery from a down economy and the 2007 writers strike, such ready-made concepts are attractive to networks. Executive reasoning seldom connects with fans, though, so let me continue to examine remakes from a fan's perspective.

Some Sherlock Holmes fans criticize the December 2009 film from director Guy Ritchie for turning Holmes into an action star, yet many of Holmes's traits included in the movie are mentioned in the original stories, if only in passing. Other fans have praised Jude Law's portrayal of Dr. Watson, knowing there is much more to Watson than the portrayal popularized by Nigel Bruce.

Many remakes take the opportunity to explore sides of characters not shown before, but whether the response is positive or negative, remakes also keep audiences thinking and talking about the source material. Two high-profile television examples are last season's Knight Rider and Dick Wolf's 2003 Dragnet . What's the latest TV update news as I write this column? Alex O'Loughlin of Moonlight and Daniel Dae Kim of Lost have been cast as Steve McGarrett and Chin Ho Kelly respectively in a new Hawaii Five-O pilot at CBS. This may seem a bad idea at first glance. However, another common fan complaint is, "They don't make TV shows like they used to." Some creators agree, which is why they continually try to update once-hugely popular concepts like Five-O.

In literature, Robert B. Parker is praised for leading P.I. fiction out of a down period in the 1960s, for making a Marlowe-like character relevant to his time. NBC may have similar ambitions for its Rockford Files update with House creator David Shore attached. The talk of an update has drawn complaints from fans who revere Rockford as portrayed by James Garner. I'm a Rockford fan myself, but I wouldn't mind an update if Garner played the Rocky role originated by Noah Beery and the new Rockford were his son. Maybe a younger audience will see a glimpse of the heyday of P.I. shows. Maybe they'll be curious about the original Rockford Files, and come to love the show as much as older fans do.

Every fan has at one time or another wished the powers-that-be would listen to him about which shows or movies to make, but fans are fickle. As often as we complain about remakes and updates, we also compare current shows to previous shows regardless of whether the previous show was truly an influence. (FOX's Human Target is too much like USA's Burn Notice ; Burn Notice is too much like MacGyver , and so on.) Naming a new show Hawaii Five-O or Dragnet might rankle some fans, but it's also the developers' way of saying they're not going to tinker with concepts that worked so well.

Of course, in making a movie of a well-loved series like The A-Team , developers have to deliver the feel of the show's years-long run in the two hours allotted to most movies. With Liam Neeson in the role originated by George Peppard, the A-Team in Carnahan's movie are veterans of Iraq, not Vietnam, and they escaped from a military prison one year ago. From the looks of the teaser trailer, though, the characters have the right feel at their core--much like Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise crew in JJ Abrams' Star Trek movie.

I don't know that I've convinced anyone to take a second like at remakes and updates, but my own view of them has definitely improved over time. Today's audiences aren't forced to accept remakes. If you end up hating a remake, you can often revisit the original, thanks to improvements in recording and restoration technology.