A remake is a film, or sometimes a television series, video game, or other forms of entertainment, that is based on and retells the plot of a previous creation in the same medium—for example, a ‘new version of an existing film.’
A remake tells the same tale as the original, but with a new cast and sometimes a different theme or setting. Reimagining is a comparable but not synonymous concept that denotes a bigger disparity between a film and the film on which it is based.
Rather than returning to the source material of an earlier film, a remake uses it as its principal source material. Ocean’s Eleven is a remake of Ocean’s 11, and Batman is a reinterpretation of the comic book source material that inspired Batman in 1966. Gus Van Sant produced a nearly identical copy of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller Psycho in 1998.
With the exception of shot-for-shot remakes, most remakes alter the character, plot, genre, and topic significantly. The Thomas Crown Affair, for example, is about a bank robbery in 1968, whereas its 1999 version is about the theft of a rare painting. The Mummy remake from 1999 was mostly seen as a ‘reimagining’ in a different genre (adventure).
Remakes on television are less common than in film, but they have occurred on occasion, particularly in the early twenty-first century. Battlestar Galactica (2003), He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002), La Femme Nikita (2010), V (2009), Hawaii 5-0 (2010), and Charlie’s Angels are just a few examples.
This was evident as early as 2004 with the release of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, which included fresh gameplay and voice acting. Although some remakes are done by the fan community, most are made by the original developer or copyright holder. Remakes of video games are frequently referred to as fan games when they are made by the community, and they are considered part of the retrogaming phenomena.
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