Remake Forum

Since there's not a real good way to have a concept page for this (nor is it really necessary), I just wanted to make a note about those rare, unique situations where the same actor is cast in the same role in a remake of the same film. Naturally this doesn't include sequels, where the same actor plays the same role in a new story all the time. The only one's I could come up with on my own were:

Penelope Cruz played Sophia in Open Your Eyes & Vanilla Sky

Stellan Skarsgard played Father Merrin in Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist & Exorcist: The Beginning

Gerard Depardieu played Andre in Mon Pere Ce Heros & My Father The Hero

So I started Googling around and found a few others:

Ingrid Bergman played Anita Hoffman in Intermezzo & Intermezzo. (apparently this was Bergman's first english speaking role)

Alan Hale played Little John in Robin Hood & Adventures of Robin Hood

That's what I could come up with, but there's very likely others. Please feel free to comment if you can come up with any more!

(Edited to fix some bad links)

Is this where I make the argument that Evil Dead 2 contains a remake of Evil Dead? No, it's not, because I'm lazy. But it might arguably count. Either way, this is a great idea. Amazed there are so many.

Does Dominion and Exorcist the Beginning really count? They were shot back to back and are not the same movie at all.

@Black_Rose said:

Does Dominion and Exorcist the Beginning really count? They were shot back to back and are not the same movie at all.

I guess you could argue it either way. It is certainly a unique situation...depends on if you consider one a remake of the other. The time proximity of when they were shot shouldn't really matter...although I have to admit to not having seen either of them!

But from what I've read, while the two movies are certainly different from each other, they still contain many of the same characters and story beats. The script for Harlin's reshoot was retooled for his film, but was still based on the Schraders version. In my opinion, it's at least worth mentioning, if only for the novelty of the situation for those two movies.

Honestly, if they came out 10 years apart, people would probably call it a remake. Or, at least, a reimagining? I dunno, its fun to think about though.

I can think of two.

Jean Reno played Lord Thiabult/Godefroy de Papincourt in Just Visiting a remake of Les Visiteurs. They're the same character but renamed.

Peter Dinklage played Frank/Peter in Death at a Funeral, a remake of Death at a Funeral. They're the same character but renamed again.

I fail to see how nobody has thought of Never Say Never Again starring Sean Connery as James Bond again.

I forgot it was a remake, I just remember its 'non-canon' Bond.

Takako Fuji played Kayako Saeki in Ju-On, Ju-On: The Grudge and The Grudge and Yuya Ozeki played Toshio Saeki in Ju-On: The Grudge and The Grudge. Both actors reprised their roles in more than one part 2, but the sequels never were remade.

@CrimsonAvenger said:

I fail to see how nobody has thought of Never Say Never Again starring Sean Connery as James Bond again.

And that film was basically a remake of Thunderball.

@theodacourt: why would they change the name? I haven't seen the movies, but "Frank" and "Peter" both seem generic enough as to not need to be cahnged.

@CrimsonAvenger said:

I fail to see how nobody has thought of Never Say Never Again starring Sean Connery as James Bond again.

yeah. Im surprised I had to read so far to see that.

@VioletEyedDragon: The only reason I can come up with for Death at a Funeral is perhaps a minor spoiler, so it's below.

If it's not that then equally, why not change the name? It doesn't really matter what he's called when it's just a bog-standard name such as Peter/Frank.

As for Just Visiting/Les Visiteurs I think they changed a lot of names so that the complex, French pronounced originals wouldn't confuse English-only speakers. If you asked 20 English only speakers to say Godefroy de Papincourt you'd get 15 different pronunciations and 6 of them would be outrageous French accents.

Michael Caine was in both version of Sleuth, but as different characters.

Patrick Stewart as Claudius in Jacobi's 1980 Hamlet and Tennant's 2008 Hamlet.

I think there is absolutely enough instance of this in the industry to warrant a concept page for it.

@jakob187: I'll make the page.

Here is the link.