Black Remakes of White Films

Movies that added color and got a new life on screen.

Annie - Previously a redhead curly afro-ed white youth in comics, on Broadway and in the original 1982 film, little orphan Annie is about to get a makeover. With Willow Smith in the title role, dad Will Smith as producer and Jay-Z providing the film’s score, movie audiences should be prepared to have their hard knock lives rocked. Annie begins production in New York City in Spring 2013.(Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)
About Last Night - Can a sexy couple make a relationship out of a one-night stand? That’s what the original 1986 film, starring Rob Lowe and Demi Moore, (based on the David Mamet play Sexual Perversity in Chicago) tried to answer. That question will be revisited when Michael Ealy and Joy Bryant take over the remake’s lead roles and Kevin Hart stars as Ealy’s BFF. The film began shooting in Los Angeles in fall 2012.(Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images For BET)
Black Orpheus - A reworking of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, writer, director and star Marcel Camus set this classic tale, (first done on screen in 1950) during the time of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. A joyous explosion of jubilant color, music and cinematography, the film stars Breno Mello and Marpessa Dawn in the title roles.(Photo: courtesy Dispat Films)
The Karate Kid (2010) - Ralph Macchio’s nostalgic 1984 karate kid marching orders of “wax on…wax off...” became part of pop culture lexicon, but Jaden Smith’s interpretation blew audiences and box office receipts away. Produced by dad Will Smith and starring Taraji P. Henson, The Karate Kid grossed nearly $200 million. A sequel is reportedly in the works.(Photo: Columbia Pictures)Carmen Jones - Bizet’s opera Carmen has had screen incarnations, which include an early 1915 Hollywood version, plus Spanish and French remakes. But director Otto Preminger’s retelling starring Dorothy Dandrige, (which earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress) Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey and a very young Diahann Carroll is probably the most classic and beloved among film buffs.(Photo: Courtesy Carlyle Productions)

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About Last Night - Can a sexy couple make a relationship out of a one-night stand? That’s what the original 1986 film, starring Rob Lowe and Demi Moore, (based on the David Mamet play Sexual Perversity in Chicago) tried to answer. That question will be revisited when Michael Ealy and Joy Bryant take over the remake’s lead roles and Kevin Hart stars as Ealy’s BFF. The film began shooting in Los Angeles in fall 2012.(Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images For BET)

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