And I go to see a lot of films that have subtitles. But everybody everywhere had already seen the classic Sergio Leone films by the time Bruce Willis and Walter Hill showed up. The original Casino Royale, filmed by numerous directors, is a spoof. I agree. “You have to delete that from your memory, though we may not be able to delete it from public perception. In the long history of puzzling remakes, Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant certainly must rank right near the top, if only because Herzog has insisted that it is not a remake. Protesting that he never saw Ferrara's film, Herzog asserts that his Bad Lieutenant (set in New Orleans) has nothing to do with the other Bad Lieutenant (set in New York) except that both of them are about corrupt police lieutenants seeking redemption. Photograph: Everett Collection / Rex FeaturesEast to west … The Magnificent Seven, a remake of Seven Samurai. In it, Harvey Keitel played a morally bankrupt police officer who seeks redemption by investigating the rape of a nun who refuses to bring charges against her assailant, turning the Bad Lieutenant into the Mad Lieutenant. Although being promoted as a remake of Bad Lieutenant (1992) during its early production, director Werner Herzog claims that this is not a remake. Re-Make/Re-Model: Bad Lieutenant (1992) vs. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)Re-Make/Re-Model: Bad Lieutenant (1992) vs. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)Jon McGovern: Well said Ian.

And then there's that seriously iffy masturbation scene in front of the schoolgirls.I have a feeling, however, that the forthcoming quasi-remake, starring Nicolas Cage in the Keitel role, with - I kid you not - Werner Herzog in the director's chair, has the potential to create mass viewer unease in a rather different manner.

David O Selznick, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, never made another film after he produced the inanimate 1957 remake of A Farewell to Arms.

The screenplay was co-written by Ferrara with actor-writer Paul Calderón and actress-model Zoë Lund, both of whom appear in the film. And not a moment too soon.A fifth, or perhaps eighth, notable category is the remake of the remake. Directed by Werner Herzog.

Take that, purists!What's more, the original Stepfather is based on a story by Donald Westlake, a brilliant pulp fiction writer, who also wrote the screenplay.

Ferrara himself has made no bones about his views on the matter: "They should all die in hell," The new Bad Lieutenant, the first promo for which is above, is reportedly not a direct remake - the Cage character has an Irish name, where his unnamed forebear was Italian-American, for a start, and the title is ... ahem ... Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, with the events relocated from New York to the Big Easy.Furthermore, Herzog claims to have never seen the original film and to have never heard of Abel Ferrara, although one suspects this might be playfulness on the part of the famously sardonic German. It wouldn't matter so much if this Hollywood pish didn't end up b...Rob McG: The English are reduced to their ruling elites, who were Norman invaders really....Jon McGovern: The thing is, people do take this seriously as genuine history.

Though the saga of the murderous, yet affable, stepfather on the prowl for cheap thrills might seem hackneyed and trite on the surface, it is actually the same basic premise of Hamlet. The Magnificent Seven made stars out of Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn, all of whom became fixtures of American cinema in the next decade, and all of whom occupy a vital niche in American pop cultural mythology.