We seem to be living in the age of telling and retelling stories; over and over again, always the same plots. In recent years there have not been so many films that are 100% original, completely new, created especially for that moment. Among remakes and reboots the audiovisual industry seems like a rehash of the rehash and yet, it is not the same to make a remake that a reboot. In the first case, the path is more or less defined, while in the second it is necessary to trace it completely again. Therefore, we believe that making a remake is somewhat easier (and cowardly) than a reboot.
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Let’s start by defining the terms. What are the differences between a remake and a reboot? A remake, as the word indicates, it means “to do again.” The goal of a remake is to re-make a film (or series) that has already proven to be successful in the past, but relatively respecting the original vision of that audiovisual product.
RebootInstead, it is a term that means “reboot” and that, thanks to the boom in superhero films, is quite widespread. When you create a reboot, what you do is restart a story or universe, with new actors and new forms and plots of the same story. Basically, what usually happens with superhero universes who press the button from time to time reboot and they begin again to tell the story of the same character from another point of view.
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Now why is it easier to make a remake that a reboot? Basically because When you try to remake, you are not planning to modify anything too much, but to tell the same story with new actors. This is often the case with foreign films that are “remade” for the North American market. A clear example of this are Japanese horror movies, such as The ring, from Hideo Nakata, which we all know more about from its American version entitled “The Ring”O, en Latin America, “The call”. Here, Gore Verbinski followed in the footsteps of Nakata to tell a story that had already proven successful and that, today, is one of the horror classics and opened the door to others remakes What The Grudge, Dark Waters O The Eye.
Another reason why remakes is to bring back to the screen classics of yesteryear, although that does not always (or almost never) work out well. On 1998, for example, the acclaimed director Gus Van Sant decided to “redo” Psycho, the classic of Alfred Hitchcock. The only big difference between the master of suspense is that the version of Van Sant It is in color, but the reality is that the two films seem traced. The failure of the new version was such that it even received nominations for the infamous awards Golden Raspberry, winning in the categories Worst Remake and Worst Director.
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The rebootsInstead, they can bring beautiful surprises. There are two great examples in this regard. The first is, of course, Batman. The Dark Knight from DC has suffered so many reboots that we have almost lost count, but in those attempts to restart his story, at some point there for him 2005 I arrive Christopher Nolan with his unforgettable trilogy that began with Batman Begins, probably one of the best versions of the history of the defender of Gotham city what we have seen so far. Nolan took risks in telling the story of Bruce Wayne, he printed his own style, adding to a Christian Bale and even Heath Ledger that will remain in everyone’s memory. Neither him Batman from Bale neither him Joker from Ledger they look like nothing we’ve ever seen before. And again recently Joaquin Phoenix, who dressed in the Joker, starred in another reboot to show us the worst villain in the universe of Dark Knight in an unexpected, but successful way, from the hand of the director Todd Phillips.
Another example of how reboots is ours 007. At 2006, with Casino Royale, James Bond He changed his face and also his tone. Behind we leave the knights Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan, to get into a Bond more inexperienced and vulnerable, played by Daniel Craig. While the other versions of James Bond had been successful, is this version, this reboot the one that brings the most success to the franchise: Casino Royale and Skyfall (the movie of 2012) are the two highest-grossing films in the series of James Bond since ever.
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So, let’s go back to the beginning. It is true that it seems that we live in an age where all stories have already been told a thousand times. Nevertheless, face the reboot of a story involves much more courage and dedication than a remake. In a reboot, a new look is necessary, a new way of telling things, perhaps to focus on places in that story that has already been told that had not previously been exploited.
Make a reboot is a challenge: it involves to give a new identity to an already known story, and that only the brave do.
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