For months now, I’ve been thinking about a sequel to my blog about sequels and remakes that I wrote in 2018. I’m even using the same hero image from that blog. Hearing earlier this week that a remake of You’ve Got Mail is in the works kicked me into high gear.
You’ve Got Mail, with a screenplay written by the brilliant Nora Ephron, was one of the few brilliant remakes I’ve ever seen. Here is its geneology:
Parfumerie (1937), written by Hungarian-American playwright Miklós László
The Shop Around the Corner (1940), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan
In the Good Old Summertime (1949) starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson
She Loves Me, a Broadway musical (1963, 1964, 1990s, 2016)
So You’ve Got Mail already surpassed the ranks of Love Affair (1937), An Affair to Remember (1957), Love Affair (1994), and I’ll give a half-point to Sleepless in Seattle (also written by Nora Ephron) which draws heavily on the plot line of the aforementioned movies.
So maybe Hollywood isn’t onto something new, but it is certainly taking its infatuation with sequels and remakes to a new stratosphere. Hollywood is preying on the nostalgia Gen X and Millenials crave. Did you see the new commercial with Jennifer Grey and Charlie Sheen, drawing on their infamous scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?
It is also capitalizing on the ad-heavy, subscription-based streaming series that can run for three to four seasons and cover a dozen or so episodes every year.
There’s gold in them hills, y’all.
Before streaming, Hollywood had two options: film and television. With film, you got box office numbers and residual income, either through rentals or movie purchases after the movies leave the silver screen. With television, you got first broadcast, residual income from reruns, and as of 2000, sales and rentals of the shows online or DVDs.
Now with the streaming option, you can completely skip the initial steps of airing episodes live, or releasing a movie in theaters. By streaming a TV series, the studios can now double their income through advertising during the show, on top of the subscription fees of the streaming service. Forget residual income – the streaming service gets the same income whether you watch the show when it first airs, or a year down the road. There will still be ads, and yes, you’re still paying the subscription fees.
There are obviously sequels that are exceptional films:
The Godfather, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones (okay, maybe one of them?), but for the most part, they capitalize on a captive audience.
So yes, expect more of this:
Batman movies (1966, 1989, 1992, 1995, 1997, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2023), streaming series The Penguin
Ted movies (2012, 2015), streaming prequel series Ted
Psycho movies (1960, 1983, 1986, 1990, 1998), streaming prequel series Bates Motel
It (1989 TV miniseries, 2017, 2019), streaming prequel series It: Welcome to Derry
Spiderman movies (2002, 2004, 2007, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2026), streaming series Spider Noir
Blade Runner movies (1982 and 2017), streaming series Blade Runner 2099
Karate Kid movies (1984, 1986, 1989, 1994, 2010, 2025), streaming series Cobra Kai
Legally Blonde (2001, 2003, 2009, 2020 sequel that I mentioned in my 2018 blog still in development), streaming series Elle
Cape Fear movies (1962 and 1991), streaming series Cape Fear which was filmed here in Atlanta. Oh, and all of these are adapted from John D. MacDonald’s 1957 novel, The Executioners.
I guess I can add prequels to the list of things to be weary of. And definitely continue to expect more adaptations, which I don’t mind as much since the directors and screenwriters clearly have to express some creativity. Some recent adaptations that have been well-received:
Sense and Sensibility
Remarkably Bright Creatures
The Odyssey
Project Hail Mary
Don’t get me started on Verity. It was a horrible book, and I won’t watch the movie, even though it has Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett.
I love original scripts. Some of the great ones I’ve seen in the last couple of years:
The Heart of the Beast
Tuner
Eternity
Send Help
Maybe this is why I gave up streaming almost two years ago? Tonight, it’s back to the stack of DVDs I checked out from the library this week, including the Rocky movies (I just screened I Play Rocky last week!) and 4 of the Aliens movies. Yes, I will still watch sequels, just not another one of You’ve Got Mail or The Shop Around the Corner.
