...now they're remaking classic novels.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14900340

Weirdly, I was thinking about this very subject on my way in to work this morning, why doesn't anyone re-write classic novels in a contemporary setting? You could say Bridget Jones was a contemporary Pride and Prejudice, but it didn't bill itself as a 'remake'.

Old novels have been riffed on many times over, re-using/re-interpretting characters (see Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Frankenstein etc...) , or lately novels are re-written with an added element, ie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

But has this 'remake' idea been so blatant before?

Any other modern 're-tellings' that you can think of in the written form?

Any classic novels you'd like to see re-written in a modern setting?

Or does this idea make your skin crawl?

The idea is idiotic. Can't you just see Patterson re-writing A Tale of Two Cities? It wouldn't take 13 pages to turn a door knob...... oh...wait. lol

Seriously though. What's wrong with fresh ideas?

The idea is idiotic. Can't you just see Patterson re-writing A Tale of Two Cities? It wouldn't take 13 pages to turn a door knob...... oh...wait. lol

A Tale of Two Cities was the first book that came to my mind. I haven't read it, stopped after a 40+ pages, although it comes highly recommended, because it seemed to be going nowhere, slowly.

Let Dan Brown at it... cared:

It's not a contemporary setting and it's a play (King Lear) but I liked Christopher Moore's Fool.

I can't get it out of my head. I'd think the results of classic novels turned contemporary would be something like Twilight.

Well, A Tale of Two Cities is my favorite book of all time. So I'd be sad if someone tried to do a straight "rewrite." Dickens' novels are a product of his time and you can't rewrite that shit. I'd be fine with a modernization based on the general concept, though.

Well, A Tale of Two Cities is my favorite book of all time. So I'd be sad if someone tried to do a straight "rewrite." Dickens' novels are a product of his time and you can't rewrite that shit. I'd be fine with a modernization based on the general concept, though.

I read that book in freshman year in HS. Sister Mary Francis said there was one every year that commented on the door knob...I was that one. I love Dickens.....just not that one long winded passage.

The premises of nearly every piece of classic literature has already been used countless times in updated versions and I'm perfectly fine with that but to take one and simply rewrite for contemporary times is wrong IMO.

I can't remember where I heard it or seem to be able to confirm it or if I believe it, but I'm pretty sure I was told that there are only 9 types of stories so that means that essentially everyone is borrowing from what came before anyway.

Not to veer off topic but if you think this is bad, they are remaking "Point Break". Honestly, this is one of those times that the WTF?!? thing is appropriate.

Is there a severe lack of original material? So much so that they need to make bad 70s-80s TV shows into movies and remake not too distant middling to bad movies?

Not to veer off topic but if you think this is bad, they are remaking "Point Break". Honestly, this is one of those times that the WTF?!? thing is appropriate.

Is there a severe lack of original material? So much so that they need to make bad 70s-80s TV shows into movies and remake not too distant middling to bad movies?

I hear they are using a rock for Keanu's role.

Yet another Shakespearian play re-told in a modern setting is Ian McKellen's 'Richard III'. I don't think there was ever more than a screenplay written that could qualify as a re-write, but the film was very well done IMHO.