Hollywood is currently attempting to mount incredibly risky remakes of two all-time movie classics – and they’re both in the hands of the same filmmaker. Studios love to remake classic movies. Disney has been quickly rattling off live-action remakes of its beloved animated films for the past decade. Remakes come with a brand recognition that studios hope will get butts in seats. Some remakes have more to add to the story and actually end up surpassing the original, like Heat, True Grit, and the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But those superior remakes are few and far between.
The more common outcome is that remakes have nothing to add and end up being a pointless endeavor, existing solely to make the original look more impressive. From Red Dawn to Total Recall to the 2013 version of Carrie, almost every remake of a classic movie pales in comparison to its predecessor. It’s impossible to improve on perfection, so in remakes that make changes to the original, like the 2001 version of Planet of the Apes, those changes ultimately ruin a great story. And shot-for-shot remakes like Psycho seem even more pointless.
12 Movie Remakes That Were Better Than the Originals
Remakes are often unnecessary cash grabs, but sometimes they can achieve real artistic merit and end up being better than the original.
Kenya Barris Is Remaking The Wizard Of Oz & It’s A Wonderful Life
Black-ish creator Kenya Barris is hard at work on not one, but two remakes of classic movies that rank among the all-time greats. Barris is writing and directing a modern remake of The Wizard of Oz for Warner Bros., which has been in development since August 2022, and Variety recently reported that he’s also working on a remake of It’s a Wonderful Life for Paramount. After making his directorial debut earlier this year with the Netflix culture-clash romcom You People, Barris is getting wildly ambitious with his follow-up features. These are two of the most beloved movies ever made.
Attempting a remake of just one of these movies would be a bold move, but taking on the task of remaking both of them at the same time is unprecedented. The Wizard of Oz revolves around teenager Dorothy Gale, who’s whisked away to a Technicolor fantasyland for an adventure on the Yellow Brick Road when her black-and-white Kansas farm is hit with a tornado. It’s a Wonderful Life revolves around family man George Bailey, who learns the true value of life when an angel stops him from taking his own life on Christmas Eve.
Why Kenya Barris’ Two Remakes Are So Risky
Barris’ two upcoming remakes are two of the riskiest remakes ever attempted. Most remakes are risky, but these are particularly risky. It’s a Wonderful Life is a holiday classic that audiences still revisit every year (nearly 80 years later), which would make it daunting enough to remake. But it’s not just one of the most widely adored Christmas movies ever made; it’s a life-affirming fable whose message that everybody’s life has value transcends its Christmas setting. It’ll be nearly impossible to retell that story and redeliver that message as effectively as Frank Capra did in the original.
The Wizard of Oz is as much a cornerstone of film history as It’s a Wonderful Life. As the first movie to introduce audiences to the true escapism that cinema can provide, The Wizard of Oz was essentially a forerunner to films like Star Wars and Avatar. In 1939, audiences were blown away by their dazzling trip to the Land of Oz. Since so many subsequent movies have borrowed The Wizard of Oz’s sense of wonder, it’ll be another near-impossible task for Barris to recapture it. Barris is setting himself up for failure two times over with these remakes.
There Are Positive Signs For Barris’ The Wizard Of Oz & It’s A Wonderful Life Remakes
While it’s extremely risky to remake both The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life, there are some positive signs that Barris could actually pull them off. Barris’ remakes won’t be shot-for-shot remakes like Gus Van Sant’s Psycho and they won’t change so much that they fail to recapture the spirit of the original. Based on his comments to Variety, he understands what makes these movies so timeless, and he has a clear vision for how to update each story for a contemporary audience while keeping those timeless themes intact.
Barris’ version of The Wizard of Oz will take place in the fraught modern world, contrasting today’s world with the Great Depression setting of the original. His version of It’s a Wonderful Life will be told from the perspective of a person of color, which will allow more people to see themselves in George Bailey. It’ll be a serious uphill battle to make new versions of The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life that will win over audiences, but Barris seems to be on the right track creatively.
