The remake concept has been in general use in the audiovisual world for several years, even reaching the general public.But on many occasions it is confused or misused in reviews, criticisms or conversations, distorting its exact meaning and original meaning. A remake is a work, generally cinematographic, that reviews a pre-existing work and that generally respects the plot line, the protagonists and the setting of the original.
This definition is very general, so that all the films that are remake can be fitted into it. But there are other films that, even fulfilling these characteristics, are far from the concept of remake , their cataloging as reboot , sequel or prequel being more reliable .
There are many types of remakes . There are those who are nothing more than a version commissioned by a director to adapt a successful film to a particular market. An example of this type of remake was Michael Haneke’s version of his own film Funny Games , where Hollywood actors such as Naomi Watts were hired to adapt their original European film to the American public.
These types of movements in the American industry are very common, although without hiring the director of the original. A case related to Spanish cinema was the unfortunate remake of Vanilla Sky , where Alejandro Amenábar had nothing to do with it, although Penélope Cruz was respected in her original character, Abre los ojos , thanks to her international projection.
Other remakes , by decision of the hired director, are exactly the same from the original from the narrative point of view, as was the case with the version of Psycho by Gus Van Sant , which respected the original by Alfred Hitchcock from plan to plan . This decision involved the commercial process in controversy and conditioned its success.
Without a doubt, the fact of making a remake is far from the less known and newer concept of the reboot , and that they generate great confusion. A reboot is a film that attempts to re-launch a character, usually related to literature or comics (although an original character from the cinema may also be the subject of it) to give it a different point of view or spirit. Robocop of José Padilha , Jack Ryan: Shadow operation of Kenneth Branagh or the trilogy of The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan may be good examples of this phenomenon ultimate self remake, which is almost as old as the cinema itself, since at the time of the appearance of sound cinema many adaptations, versions or remakes of silent films were made.
