Remakes are nothing new.

Universal Studios is making a Stretch Armstrong movie. You read that correctly.

Stretch Armstrong is just one of the classic children’s toys that are reportedly becoming major motion pictures. The project has emerged among talk of adapting other popular childhood staples such as Battleship and Candy Land.

Has Hollywood officially run out of ideas?

The past few years have seen a plague of remakes, sequels and adaptations in theaters across the country. Online movie ticket mainstay Fandango lists the nation’s 10 top-grossing movies currently at the box office on the front page of their Web site. Of the films listed this week, five are tied to previously successful stories.

While it may seem like the movie makers of America have begun to finally hit the end of their rope, associate communications professor Robert Miller does not see it quite like that.

He believes the recent wave of theatrical déjà vu is nothing more than part of a cycle of the film industry. The concept of re-doing or re-creating a story has existed since the early days of motion pictures.

“My point of view here is that the popular movie business has always specialized in adapting and re-working previously successful stories and characters from other media,” Miller said.

Miller explains that even at the close of the 1920s, the most popular film ideas from 10-15 years earlier were already getting re-done.

A huge race was being run by the movie studios of the time to re-make the most popular silent films with then-new audio technology. This happened again once the 40s rolled around, when
popular movies from the 20s were already getting re-made.

There may seem like periods of time where remakes and sequels are more frequently turned out, but it is in part due to a surge of popularity for those kinds of films.

Miller maintains that, while re-makes and sequels never fully go away, popular, original stories do have their time in the limelight.

“It’s like the rising and setting of the moon,” Miller said. “It just keeps going on in cycles over and over again.”

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