With Robert Rodriguez’s Predators (a remake of 1987′s Predator) opening very soon (July 9th) we here at Movie-Thoughts thought it would be appropriate to bring up the topic of remakes and reboots. A looming remake besides Predators that has had the attention of the movie world is 2012′s reboot of the grossly successful Spider-Man franchise. Why is this?

Many fans on the blogosphere have expressed some downright odious sentiments about the idea of rebooting a movie franchise as successful as Spider-Man, especially so soon after the original trilogy was completed (Spider-Man 3 came out in the summer of 2007). In case you need to play catch-up on the topic, here is the full press release from Sony Pictures about the new Spidey project:

Culver City, CA (January 11, 2010) — Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012. Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.

The new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.

“A decade ago we set out on this journey with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire and together we made three Spider-Man films that set a new bar for the genre. When we began, no one ever imagined that we would make history at the box-office and now we have a rare opportunity to make history once again with this franchise. Peter Parker as an ordinary young adult grappling with extraordinary powers has always been the foundation that has made this character so timeless and compelling for generations of fans. We’re very excited about the creative possibilities that come from returning to Peter’s roots and we look forward to working once again with Marvel Studios, Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin on this new beginning,” said Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

“Working on the Spider-Man movies was the experience of a lifetime for me. While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job,” said Sam Raimi.

“We have had a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration and friendship with Sam and Tobey and they have given us their best for the better part of the last decade.This is a bittersweet moment for us because while it is hard to imagine Spider-Man in anyone else’s hands, I know that this was a day that was inevitable,” said Matt Tolmach, president of Columbia Pictures, who has served as the studio’s chief production executive since the beginning of the franchise. “Now everything begins anew, and that’s got us all tremendously excited about what comes next. Under the continuing supervision of Avi and Laura, we have a clear vision for the future of Spider-Man and can’t wait to share this exciting new direction with audiences in 2012.”

“Spider-Man will always be an important franchise for Sony Pictures and a fresh start like this is a responsibility that we all take very seriously,” said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures. “We have always believed that story comes first and story guides the direction of these films and as we move onto the next chapter, we will stay true to that principle and will do so with the highest respect for the source material and the fans and moviegoers who deserve nothing but the best when it comes to bringing these stories and characters to life on the big screen.”

(Read all about the Spider-Man reboot here.)

Director Marc Webb will try his best to prove naysayers of the Spider-Man reboot wrong

As of now no significant characters have been cast, but according to IMDb.com Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) has signed on to direct.

Remakes as a genre (yes, they are in fact an actual genre) seem to elicit either strong negative reactions or hardly any reactions at all. Successful remakes – King Kong (2005), Scarface (1983), The Fly (1986), Little Women (1994), The Departed (2006), The Maltese Falcon (1941) – often capture audiences in a way that their originals did not, or at the very least made their original’s story more culturally legible at the time. The list of successful remakes is a lot longer than anyone might care to admit, but Hollywood studios have pointed to them time and again to justify continuing the practice. The very idea of remaking a movie in and of itself is harmless enough, so why do some people get so heated when they hear of another one in the works?

The movies that remakes are based from no doubt play a part in the initial attitude audiences have towards them. When it was announced that Universal wanted to reboot the Hulk franchise (after making only one film) the everyman’s reaction was tantamount to a cock of the head; we were confused, but hardly furious. When the Star Trek reboot was released it was met with wild critical acclaim and phenomenal excitement. The Star Trek franchise has a much longer and bigger movie history than any super-hero character, with avid fans that span all ages and all national borders, yet even without Patrick Stuart or William Shatner the reboot ruffled hardly any feathers when all was said and done. Why is this?

One commonality that the remakes and/or reboots that have been mentioned share is that they aren’t the kind that try to borrow too much from their source material. David Cronenberg made the story of The Fly his own by incorporating a concept that is present in a number of his movies, which is the evolution of “the flesh.” He did this largely through the characters and his graphic aesthetic style. Martin Scorsese made The Departed his own by placing the story in Boston (the original, Infernal Affairs, was set in Hong Kong) and molding the characters around the real-life events surrounding gangster legend Whitey Bulger. And Brian De Palma updated Scarface by using the context of the Cuban immigration deluge in Miami during the early 1980s (as well as replacing prohibition-era alcohol distributing with drug trafficking). Both the remake of Predator and the reboot of Spider-Man look not to mimic their predecessors but rather re-imagine them. If one is to be upset about this concept then can we presumed that it is their main grounds for discontentment? If this is so, then we can also presume that that person considers

History has proven that remakes aren't beneath even the greatest of directors

the first imagining/film as “true” or already being of the highest possible quality. Without automatically attributing value to a re-imagining just because it’s new, it’s still important to mention that – from an artistic standpoint – we mustn’t automatically attribute superiority to an original. Even the great Alfred Hitchcock found it necessary to remake one of his own films (The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934, 1956)).

With all of this said, we at Movie-Thoughts would like to know what your opinions are on remakes and reboots. Do you inherently hate them? Are you neutral? Do you like some more than others? And feel free to go one step further by telling us what you think should and/or should not be remade/rebooted. Give us your thoughts via our email at Clifford@Movie-Thoughts.com or our Twitter account @MovieThoughts09, and keep enjoying the movies!