Reimagine or Renovate
In the 2000s reimagine (or re-imagine) and, to a lesser extent, renovate became popular in reference to remakes which do not closely follow the original. The terms are used by creators in the marketing of films and television shows to inform audiences that the new product is not the same as the old one. Reimaginings and renovations often contain tongue in cheek references to the original, with characters of the same name and similar concepts, while remaining significantly different from the original. In Tin Man, a reimagining of The Wizard of Oz, for example, the main character is named DG, a reference to Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz, and the land she enters is called the Outer Zone (O.Z.).
The imagining of a franchise often leads to controversy within established fan communities as to which is more legitimate or more popular. Remakes that have become most associated with the reimagine or renovate terms include:
- Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes
- Nora Ephron's Bewitched
- Marcus Nispel's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th
- Rob Zombie's Halloween
- Samuel Bayer's A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica
- David Eick's Bionic Woman
- Nelson McCormick's Prom Night
- Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead
- Kenneth Johnson's V
Tim Burton has denied that his 2010 film Alice in Wonderland is a renovation of Lewis Carroll's classic novel; however, the plot line of the film bears very little resemblance to the original or derivatives of it, such as the classic 1951 animated film from Walt Disney. Interestingly, several characters from Disney films serve as the core characters in the television series Once Upon a Time, in which the characters' names that was used in the films are retained but was given a previous life backstory to explain their origin.
The reimaginging or renovation practice has also occurred within other media, such as video games and comic books. One example in gaming is Bomberman Act: Zero, a more hardcore version of Bomberman, which was not well received. Another is Bionic Commando Rearmed, which changes some elements of the game and story to fit into a sequel, while paying homage to the original. In comics, the new Sgt. Rock, with the Rock character as a member of the U.S. 442nd Infantry regiment, and the unknown "Easy Company", as well as Unknown Soldier, which takes place in Uganda in 2002, both change the character's background or setting. The term reimagine has also been applied to music releases, such as Brian Wilson Reimagines Gerswhin (Disney, 2010) and Cirque du Soleil's "Viva Elvis: The Album" (Sony Legacy, 2010).
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