Are gender-swapping movie remakes going Overboard?

Hollywood is banking on our love of heist and caper movies by gender-swapping the role of the con artist. Here are few comedic remakes soon to hit our screens.

Making a movie is an expensive business. This becomes even more expensive if the movie is a flop. A tested way to limit the risk is to invest in sequels, trilogies, adaptations and remakes. Just look at the plethora of franchises that abound such as Star Wars, Marvel Universe and Jurassic Park.

The rise of remaking movies with gender-swapped roles is on the rise as well. Let’s face it. There are very few people in this world who would not want to see Channing Tatum replace Darryl Hannah and swish his fin in a potential gender-swapped remake of Splash. Though, the success of the male mermaid (well merman) in The Shape of Water shows that the reversal of traditional roles can be highly successful in movies with completely fresh content.

Extending a franchise with a gender-swap can be a great thing. Lindsay Wagner in The Bionic Woman was certainly just as cool as Lee Major’s The Six Million Dollar Man. It seems, however, that just about every other movie is a remake where male leads have been replaced with females.

This may be a positive direction for women in Hollywood. But is this really a commitment demonstrating that females can be bankable leads? Or is it about having an existing nostalgic audience that makes these swaps a safe bet? Ideally, we’d like to see more empowered, female-led movies that are new, rather than rehashing movie plots that have already proven their success.

An upcoming gender-swapped remake is Overboard, due for release in May. In the 1987 movie, Kurt Russell plays a carpenter who convinces Goldie Hawn’s character, a wealthy woman with amnesia, that they are married. In the remake, Anna Faris plays a pauper carpet cleaner and Eugenio Derbez plays the rich playboy.

While the remake may prove to be funny and successful in its own right, the joy of the old version is in the real-life chemistry between Russell and Hawn, and the extremes of the stereotypes they were playing.

In June, two more films are to be released in which the roles of the con men have been replaced with con women. First, there is The Hustle with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson. This is a revamp of the classic 1988 film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in which the con artists are played by Michael Caine and Steve Martin.

Then, there is Ocean’s 8. This all-female spin-off of the Ocean’s Eleven series has a top-notch cast — Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwaina, Rihanna and Helena Bonham Carter. While it will be great to feel the nostalgia of the earlier films, Ocean’s 8 is set to be a vibrant new caper rather than a remake of the men folks’ casino robbery.

If any series demonstrates the bankability of remakes then it is this franchise. After all, the Ocean’s Eleven of 2001 was a remake of the classic 1960’s Ocean’s 11 starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

So, what will be the next gender-swapped heist or caper movie remake? A Fish Called Walter?

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