Her off-camera antics aside, I can’t stand her acting…or her singing. 
The Black Cauldron - the movie that almost killed Disney Animation. And do the whole book series as a Netflix or Amazon Disney Plus series. And use all the characters.
If the Golden Compass could be done twice, then Prydain should be done better. I enjoyed Netflix’s rendition of The Letter to the King - so it gives me hope for Prydain.
I like this approach to the question: basically, what adaptations of novels failed, and should be tried again? For things that have only been films, if it was good, why remake it? If it was bad, why would I want to see another version of it? But at least with a bad adaptation of a novel, you could think “Oh, that could have been so much better!”
As for weak adaptations … god, I dunno. All that comes to mind right now is Striptease, which is a fun novel (like all Carl Hiaasen), but not a good film. Don’t see much reason to remake it, however.
The Hobbit could certainly be done much, much better than it was. That can wait a couple of decades.
What’s a crap movie version of a great sci-fi or fantasy short story or novel? Dune sort of fits on this list. There must be plenty of mystery / noir stuff as well, but I don’t know that genre well; ditto the countless horror short stories made into bad horror movies in the 80s. Ah, I see @Celeborn is thinking a similar direction with The Black Cauldron - I’m pretty sure I read that, but don’t remember it at all.
(The new Planet of the Apes trilogy, with Andy Serkis, was quite good, thank you very much! But those were prequels, not remakes.)
Many, many stories could do with a Muppet version. Not really remakes, however.
@Celeborn
You might be interested in this article
https://collider.com/the-black-cauldron-disney-why-it-flopped-controversy-explained/
As much as I enjoyed the Dune with Sting, I look forward to the latest remake. I don’t expect to enjoy it as much as when I read the book way back as a kid, but I’ve always been disappointed that it didn’t get the Star Wars or Star Trek treatment that it should have. It looks like this remake could approach that. And I am thrilled at the size of the sandworms!
Not going to wait for this. I haven’t seen the trilogy films (trilogy!!!?!!) and I’m unsure I ever will. I will watch the cartoon version again with my kid. That’s enough for me.
There are many shows for which you can say “Keep going, and it gets better.” Unfortunately The Hobbit trilogy got worse with each passing film. There are absolutely some good scenes in it: the unexpected party, Gollum / Bilbo, Bilbo / Smaug - those were fantastic. But that’s maybe 40 minutes out of nine hours.
I love The Lord of the Rings films and heartily recommend them. But there’s a ridiculously overdone scene near the end when Legolas takes out an entire division on a giant war elephant - it’s absurd CGI acrobatics. That was a fun overdone bit, excused (by me anyway) because it was the last big battle scene. For The Hobbit, they apparently decided to take every battle sequence (and quite a few sequences that weren’t even battles in the book) and give it that approach. But more. Oof.
Re: Dune: I didn’t learn until recently that this is just the first half of the novel, with the filming of Part 2 dependent on how well it does. (I’ve heard that; dunno how accurate it is.) That doesn’t bode well - Covid’s going to be murder on film box office for quite a while yet.
That’s sort of a good question. I think that nearly answer would be films that you didn’t know had an original.
The number of sequels that were better than the originals is equally limited.
There’s many more superior sequels than superior remakes. If there’s a trilogy it’s usually the third movie that sucks hard for some reason.
If it’s a GOOD trilogy, it’s the second movie that generally rocks. Of course, this is when the initial film makes a lot of cash so greenlights the next two chapters, meaning a larger budget so it’s understandable.
Sequels that are not trilogies…I’m sure that there are a few that are good though unless it went from cult classic to huge movie, I am blanking.
Does Kill Bill Volume 2 count?
Agreed. Also, some parts didn’t age too well. Remember the “you will never be a movie star speech” the idea that these generations (90s) had no great wars or economic depression to shape them…
Wow, even now it’s difficult to believe just how good the future looked in the 90s. So bright, you needed to wear shades.
Have you seen French Connection 2? Brilliant! One of my favourite films.
Just no.
No no no no no.
Why? Starship Troopers couldn’t be made any better. Almost a perfect movie. In fact, it couldn’t be made today.
Heinlen was a kinda anti communist in the book. Verhoven turned it into an antifascist movie without telling anyone first.
Wait, (op) did you think it was about alien invasion and protecting earth?
Book to film I’d like to see done =
- Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts)
- Magic Kingdom for Sale (Terry Brooks)
- Redwall series (Brian Jaques)
My kid would be thrilled to see a decent Mario movie. The originals are cringe worthy.
I don’t think I’ve had that thought once in my life. And I don’t want them to miscast Prabhu 
ETA 'Shantaram:' Production on Apple TV+ Series Has been Temporarily Suspended
It’s actually rare for a film series to only have TWO films, so I think we have to distinguish between PLANNED trilogies and UNPLANNED trilogies (or further entries)… so not counting ‘Empire Strikes Back’, ‘The Dark Knight’, "Captain America: Winter Soldier’ or ‘X2: X-Men United’ because at least we can conclude all of those franchises were planned for at least three movies.
Then I’ll say ‘Terminator 2’ (not part of a planned trilogy, since all the subsequent sequels (aka cash grabs) are usually ignored), ‘Aliens’ (again, not orginally planned as a trilogy), and I’d even count ‘Godfather 2’ as there was no plan for a trilogy when the second film was made. ‘Mad Max 2’ is debatable whether there was a third film planned… same with ‘Lethal Weapon 2’. ‘Evil Dead II’ is another I’m not sure about. ‘Gremlins 2’ is one of those rare franchises that did not have a third film, and I definitely think it’s better than the first one. Anyway, I think my point has been made here.
Only if it was based on the book, not the movie.
I think the older Disney animated movies can be reanimated, but never remade into live action. Live action remakes are just…“said no one”
That Lion King remake was a weird one. So many stills from the original are instantly recognizable (and I’m not even a big fan of that film!) - but the newer one, if you show a still from it, does it look like much of anything?
True Grit (2010) and 3:10 to Yuma (2007) are both remakes and are often considered superior to the original. Or at least on par.
There are many films based on the same source material (Titanic, Little Women, David Copperfield, Shakespeare’s plays etc.), but I’m not sure if they can be called remakes. If they can then many people have been saying that the most recent Greta Gerwig Little Women rendition is the best one (even though I personally can’t stand it; the 1994 one is a lot better), and the 1997 Titanic was the all time box office #1 till like 2019 (which I also hate).