Remakes, reboots, and reimaginings of existing films are becoming more and more common in the moviegoing landscape as Hollywood studios grow increasingly risk-averse and take fewer chances on original ideas. In most cases, studios hire a new filmmaker to take a crack at familiar material. But some directors have actually remade their own work.
From Michael Mann to Alfred Hitchcock to John Ford to Yasujirō Ozu, some of the greatest filmmakers in the history of cinema have taken a second stab at their own movies.
John Ford – Judge Priest (1934) & The Sun Shines Bright (1953)
John Ford is primarily known for directing seminal western classics that defined the genre. But in 1934, he directed a comedy based on humorist Irvin S. Cobb’s character Judge Priest, and in 1953, he remade it as the drama The Sun Shines Bright.
According to the Eureka Entertainment listing for their Blu-ray release of The Sun Shines Bright, Ford was compelled to remake Judge Priest because 20th Century Fox had cut a crucial scene from the original in which the title character condemns an attempted lynching.
Michael Haneke – Funny Games (1997, 2007)
Apparently dissatisfied with having only haunted Austrian audiences with the unrelenting terror of Funny Games, Michael Haneke remade the movie for English-speaking viewers a decade later.
The American version is a shot-for-shot remake retelling the terrifying tale of two sadistic criminals invading the vacation home of a middle-class family and torturing them for fun. In both movies, the fourth wall breaks ominously draw the viewer into the world of these two psychopaths.
Hans Petter Moland – In Order Of Disappearance (2014) & Cold Pursuit (2019)
Hans Petter Moland’s grisly Norwegian action thriller In Order of Disappearance tells the story of a snowplow driver who seeks vengeance against the drug dealers who killed his son. The director tells this familiar tale of revenge with a subversive dose of pitch-black humor.
He brought the same dark sense of humor to the English-language remake, Cold Pursuit, in which Liam Neeson replaced Stellan Skarsgård in the lead role.
Sebastián Lelio – Gloria (2013) & Gloria Bell (2018)
In the Chilean-Spanish co-production Gloria, director Sebastián Lelio shed a light on the kind of character that is often neglected in Hollywood fare. The film tells the story of a free-spirited older woman getting swept up in a whirlwind romance.
Paulina García won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival for her performance as the title character in the original. In the 2018 remake, Gloria Bell, the role was filled by Julianne Moore.
Takashi Shimizu – Ju-On: The Grudge (2002) & The Grudge (2004)
Takashi Shimizu is one of Japan’s most renowned horror filmmakers. He’s known for unnerving his audience with the suggestion of terror, rather than relying on gore and jump scares.
Producer Sam Raimi was wise to bring back the original visionary for the American remake of Shimizu’s supernatural chiller Ju-on: The Grudge. The remake also brought back Takako Fuji as the villainous Kayako Saeki, and stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as exchange student Karen Davis.
Cecil B. DeMille – The Ten Commandments (1923, 1956)
Cecil B. DeMille’s original 136-minute version of The Ten Commandments from 1923 is considered to be one of the first epic films ever made. But its scope and scale are nothing compared to DeMille’s star-studded 1956 remake, which clocks in at a whopping 220 minutes (albeit with an intermission included).
The remake allowed DeMille to realize large-scale set-pieces that weren’t possible with the filmmaking technology available when he helmed the original movie.
Ken Scott – Starbuck (2011) & Delivery Man (2013)
With the juicy high-concept premise of a commitment-phobic bachelor learning that his frequent sperm donations have led to more than 500 children who want to know the identity of their biological father, Hollywood quickly snapped up the rights to Ken Scott’s French-language Canadian comedy Starbuck.
Scott retooled the film as an English-language starring vehicle for Vince Vaughn called the average Vince Vaughn movie.
Yasujirō Ozu – A Story Of Floating Weeds (1934) & Floating Weeds (1959)
Yasujirō Ozu’s 1959 masterpiece Floating Weeds is often cited as one of the greatest movies ever made. It’s actually a color remake of Ozu’s earlier black-and-white silent film A Story of Floating Weeds.
Both movies are about a jealous mistress, but the remake goes into more depth. In the original, the character is called Otaka and she’s played by Rieko Yagumo. In the remake, the character is called Sumiko and she’s played by Machiko Kyō.
Michael Mann – L.A. Takedown (1989) & Heat (1995)
Michael Mann originally filmed Vincent Hanna’s obsessive pursuit of bank robber Neil McCauley as an unsuccessful TV pilot titled L.A. Takedown that he later retooled into a standalone made-for-TV movie. The cat and mouse of this cat-and-mouse thriller were initially played by Scott Plank and Alex McArthur.
When Mann remade the movie for the big screen, he cast two more recognizable actors in the roles with Heat is now praised as one of the greatest action movies ever made. L.A. Takedown is a solid effort, but it was massively overshadowed by its remake.
Alfred Hitchcock – The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934, 1956)
Alfred Hitchcock remade one of his earliest British suspense thrillers, The Man Who Knew Too Much, as a Hollywood production with the same title and plot two decades later. Hitchcock decided to redo his early-career classic because he grew to dislike his work on the original.
In the book-length interview Hitchcock/Truffaut, Hitchcock famously said, “Let’s say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional.”
