Norma – How to Remake an Untouchable Classic?
Peter Szemmelveisz
June 4, 2021
In short: you don’t. Usually. Time and time again, attempts are made to pull this off but it never works, and for good reason. If a story has been already told successfully once, telling it again in the same medium, can only pale in comparison to the original, especially if that original just happens to be what many view as a rarity : a perfect film. And since a new version clearly can’t be better than perfect then why bother? There will be a target on its back even before a single scene is shot and ultimately it will just get the same old “repetitive and unnecessary” feedback that recent attempts received, like the remakes of Rebecca, Ben Hur, Psycho, and Sabrina, just to name a few.
In short: you don’t. Usually. Time and time again, attempts are made to pull this off but it never works, and for good reason. If a story has been already told successfully once, telling it again in the same medium, can only pale in comparison to the original, especially if that original just happens to be what many view as a rarity : a perfect film. And since a new version clearly can’t be better than perfect then why bother? There will be a target on its back even before a single scene is shot and ultimately it will just get the same old “repetitive and unnecessary” feedback that recent attempts received, like the remakes of Rebecca, Ben Hur, Psycho, and Sabrina, just to name a few.