Imitation, the sincerest form of flattery?

Or, when creative folks run out of ideas.

Maybe it’s the endless distractions that come with summertime — like the flies buzzing around my head and the front door open to all sorts of vehicular and pedestrian sounds — but sometimes it’s hard to think of what to write for this space. Call it writer’s block. Call it sleepiness. But when a deadline is looming, something must be written!

I know writing isn’t the only profession that has a term for running out of ideas. I think of filmmaking, too. Hollywood loves to remake movies. There are probably more reasons why they love remakes than the few I can think of, such as 1) it’s a proven idea 2) people love to see an old favorite reborn 3) and some people hate tampering with an old favorite, which still generates good ticket sales 4) people like to see how their favorite films look with updated technology like computer-generated imagery 5) it’s safe 6) Hollywood isn’t stupid; they know what makes money.

Wikipedia has a list of film remakes. It’s so long, it had to be split into two entries. Some of the entries really made me scratch my head, though. Who asked for a remake of “Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman”? Why did “Babes in Toyland” enjoy three remakes for a total of four movies made?
The original “Around the World in Eighty Days” was made 100 years ago. Still, it has three remakes. I wonder if part of the reason why so many filmmakers remake movies is because they really, really like that particular movie so they want to make their own. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?
The book “The Call of the Wild” generated five movies. Christmas movies seem to go overboard, as well. “Scrooge,” also known as “A Christmas Carol,” accounts for a total of seven movies! And I’m barely down the first Wikipedia page.

This made me wonder which movie has been made the most times. Maybe someone can fill me in. It seems “The Three Musketeers” is the winner with 27 films. Talk about playing it safe. That’s a whole lot of the same, “refreshed” or “reimagined” ideas. And I’m not even talking about the endless stealing of ideas that goes on in Hollywood. How many Westerns were basically the same thing over and over again? But it was fun and it’s still fun. Tracing original ideas back to their source is a pain in the butt, so let’s not go there. As King Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun,” and I’m not smart enough to trace everything back to its origin (and won’t live long enough, either), so thanks, King Solomon, for letting me off the hook.

I cannot even fathom trying to sort out all the superhero movies from Marvel and the like. They seem to come out with a new one every other day. And they all seem to look the same. If there are any fanboys or -girls out there, I apologize, but they really do all look the same. My son (who is 4) likes to watch them, so I learned this by occasionally glancing at the TV during the noisiest parts.

Some of the reasons why we have remakes popping out our ears are easy to understand. For instance, if a studio owns the license to, say, Spider-Man, they have to keep making Spider-Man movies or the license goes back to whoever had it before. So, it makes sense for them to keep churning movies out as long as people go see them. And I’m sure they are fun, action-packed movies.
Some movies are part of our cultural fabric. They’ve always been with us. There is nostalgia at work here. But it’s almost like our generation (whichever one we belong to) is validated when one of our beloved movies is remade. Maybe we enjoyed it when we were kids. Human beings are sometimes strange creatures, seeking out the same experience over and over. Why does Godzilla or King Kong still resonate with us?

One of my son’s favorite movies is “The Good Dinosaur,” which I thought we would watch once and that would be it. But, the first time he watched it, he cried. So I sat down with him and we talked about the ending. Then he said he’d like to watch it again. And what was a Netflix DVD that was supposed to go back to Netflix (and eventually did) turned into me buying a DVD so he can watch it whenever. What about the movie does he like? Probably too many things to mention here. For him, if it was worth watching the first time, it’s worth watching again. Maybe that’s the reason why we have so many remakes. We want that original experience back — whatever it was that made us cry or laugh or our heart pound. Hollywood gets it.

My son gets it. I guess I get it, too.