I *love* rtpoe's remake ideas. For the most part, I fall in the camp that believes remakes should be reserved for movies with potential that was fumbled the first time out, and movies that can have new and different resonance due to societal changes.
As far as the former, I said for years to whoever would listen that The Poseidon Adventure should be remade. You wouldn't know from either version, but the pulpy novel the original was partially lifted from was far superior. When I got my wish for a remake, it didn't resemble the novel at all and used only the concept, and everything else was different. I didn't even bother seeing it.
There's an old Billy Wilder movie from the late '50s called Ace in the Hole, where Kirk Douglas plays a big-city reporter in some podunk desert mining town for a dinky story when the mine caves in and traps a worker. He uses it to his advantage and (secretly ensuring that the miner stays trapped until he's squeezed every drop of potential out of it) builds a frenzied media circus around the whole thing. It's a dark, bitter, REALLY excellent concept that's just a liiiiitle bit off in its execution (but still a highly enjoyable movie). Only film buffs know it for the most part because it was a huge bomb when it premiered, and only picked up critical favor on TV down the line. It's obscure and somewhat flawed, and very relevant now--remake.
The V.I.P.s, a glossy '60s soap opera about wealthy folks stranded in the VIP lounge of a major airport when inclement weather grounds all the flights. Numerous characters, multiple storylines, everyone's got issues and entanglements. Richard Burton, Liz Taylor, Louis Jourdan, Maggie Smith, on and on. Margaret Rutherford won an Oscar for her performance. Sounds interesting...thing is, the movie's LAME. It's bloated, boring, and aimless, with the exception of a couple of spirited performances (Smith in particular is sublime). Remake. And the great thing about that since the characters are mostly failures in execution, with this one you COULD create entirely new characters and retain only the concept.
The War of the Roses--fairly recent, in terms of things being remade, and actually one of my all-time favorites. But it's flawed. I'm not talking about the divisive fate of the main characters--I think that's absolutely spot on--but the whole of the screenplay contains a little TOO much bitter and doesn't balance as properly as it could've, and the film's big blunder is the bookending (and occasionally interrupting) narrative scenes with Devito and Dan Castellaneta. I think with some tightening that could be ready for another go.
And in about ten more years, I think The Devil's Advocate needs to get its shit together and come back to the table. That should have been a DYNAMITE movie. There was a lot there that worked, but it fucked up in way too many places along the way, starting with the fact that it wasn't written NEARLY well enough to take itself that seriously, and ending with...well, that shitty ending.
As far as legitimate classics, it's high time somebody got around to taking on Network. An update of that could REALLY be something. Clooney optioned it years ago and was developing a remake, but nothing ever came of it for some reason. All About Eve is up there with Network as one of the most brilliant screenplays ever filmed, and there's still fresh life in it and a new angle to be taken in the modern era. I think The Philadelphia Story, with the right writer and excellently cast, could be a really refreshing thing.
Many might disagree, and I don't dispute it would be a TALL fucking order because it's just SO damned iconic, but I really believe Scarface needs to be tried again. This is not a case where I'd like to see it--I feel it SHOULD be done. I feel that the great movie that's somewhere in there deserves another shot at being brought out. Some great performances and some damned fantastic moments were done a real disservice by some BAAAAD performances (OMG Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, were you SERIOUS with that?), a lot of not-so-great dialogue (I don't care about the profanity, I just mean most of the dialogue sucked), and just general excessive bloatedness. There are two or three VERY different directions one could go with a modern retelling, and done sharply (it would have to be, to stand up to the fan outcries) it could be amazing.
Once upon a time I said that, too, about The Women. It's a god damn shame how Nancy Myers botched the hell out of that, because now nobody can or will touch it again for at least twenty years. At least.
I'm sure there are others. I never agreed with them remaking The Manchurian Candidate, but on paper I could see where they were going with it and why they believed it would work--I just thought the original was TOO brilliant to top. I loathe that someone actually thought in recent years that it was worth attempting to remake Charade (a PERFECT film that gains nothing extra with modernization and has nothing else left to say) and The Pink Panther (damn near so, and impossible to ever recreate in a way that wouldn't invite--and fail in--comparison).
One of my favorite cases for remakes is the Sydney Pollack version of Sabrina, with Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear. Despite the casting and director, I never ever cared for the original, and found it boring and heavily lacking in charm or chemistry. The remake simply glows.
My big fear? We all know it's only a matter of time before somebody remakes Jaws. And why the fuck would you try to mess with that?