Here's a list of a dozen remakes and revival projects now at various stages in the studio pipeline.
When Worlds Collide
Steven Spielberg is one of the producers and Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing), infamous for his "give me more" attitude toward CGI effects, is directing.
Like the original 1951 film produced by George Pal, this Worlds, due in cinemas next year, is about the mad scramble to build a spaceship to save humanity before Earth is destroyed by a rogue planet entering its orbit.
The Terminator
It's not a remake, but film-maker McG's plan to revive the killer robot franchise with a sequel next year starring Christian Bale as John Connor has been circled by fans after a strong showing at the Comic-Con International convention.
Terminator Salvation shows the grim war between humans and Skynet with its murderous metallic armies.
Robocop
If the Terminator can get tuned up for a revival, why not that other 1980s mechanical hero? After several fits and starts, MGM announced in March that a reboot of Robocop would be in cinemas in 2010.
Ghostbusters
There's talk of making a third instalment in the sci-fi comedy franchise and bringing back the original crew - Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson - as well as some new, second-generation busters.
Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, writers for The Office, are at work on the script for Columbia Pictures, and Murray, in the past the most reluctant to return, has said that he's open to the idea.
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Breck Eisner, the director of Sahara and son of former Disney chief Michael Eisner, is directing, while screenwriter Gary Ross is on board to retell the story of an Amazon River expedition that crosses paths with a prehistoric amphibian humanoid.
The presence of Ross gives the 2009 release a link to the original 1954 film - that Universal classic was written by his father, Arthur A. Ross.
Flash Gordon
After the Black Lagoon remake, director Eisner is planning to revive Flash Gordon for Columbia, bringing back the brand that hit the silver screen in 1980 with the campy Dino DeLaurentiis production that so memorably featured the music of Queen, not to mention Topol with wings and Timothy Dalton in tights.
Westworld
The late Michael Crichton wrote and directed the 1973 sci-fi thriller about a theme park where rich visitors can live out fantasies such as engaging in Old West gunfights, thanks to the park's androids, such as the menacing robot cowboy memorably portrayed by Yul Brynner.
Just like in his Jurassic Park, though, you know things are going to go badly for the smug and boozy tourists.
Crichton had worked on a script for a remake (and, at one point, Quentin Tarantino was approached to direct), but the author's death in November might mark the end of the reboot effort.
Logan's Run
This is a remake that can't seem to find sanctuary even after a decade of attempts.
A few years ago, Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects) was all set to re-imagine the 1976 movie about a society where everyone submits to state-ordered execution parlours on their 21st birthday or gets hunted down by agents called Sandmen.
Singer dropped out to make Superman Returns, though, and now producer Joel Silver (The Matrix films) appears intent to regenerate with a newcomer as director, namely Joseph Kosinski, who has made his name in commercials.
Forbidden Planet
Producer Silver is also behind a planned revival of this 1956 classic that gave a sci-fi twist to Shakespeare's The Tempest and starred Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen long before his career tilted toward comedy.
It also introduced the world to Robbie the Robot, a machine man who would show in film and television shows for decades.
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley's classic horror tale of science gone awry has given Hollywood shambling visions of cemetery horror for decades, among them Boris Karloff's defining 1930s performances and Robert DeNiro's very different take in the 1994 Kenneth Branagh remake.
Next up? Guillermo Del Toro says that after he finishes the two-film version of The Hobbit he will turn his attention to the gothic morality tale.
Fahrenheit 451
It's been 55 years since the publication of Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel about Guy Montag, a "fireman", a term for state-employed book-burners of the future.
Francois Truffaut brought the story to the silver screen in 1966, and there have been numerous efforts over the past decade to cook up a remake, with Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt among the stars who have flirted with the Montag role.
Writer-director Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption) is on the job now with a planned 2010 release even though his announced star, Tom Hanks, dropped out of the project in March.
The Illustrated Man
Another Bradbury work that is planned for a 2010 release is this project from the Watchmen duo of director Zack Snyder (who also directed 300) and screenwriter Alex Tse.
The Illustrated Man was a 1951 book of 18 short stories (including one, Rocket Man, that inspired the Elton John hit) that were linked by a bizarre framing device - a bum who is covered in tattoos from the future that move and represent the characters in the tales.
It was made into a 1969 film starring Rod Steiger but it's not clear what direction Snyder is taking the property.
-Geoff Boucher
