Classic Films in the Present Day

We’ve seen plenty of remakes of Hollywood classics in recent years, but one question always pops up – how do you choose how to replace the original cast in the new version?

It just so happens that BetVictor have taken an analytical look at which of today’s stars would be best placed to replace the Hollywood legends of some classic movies…

The criteria were as follows:

Age & Experience

Taking the age and experience of actors from classic films to compare them with the actors at similar stages of their career today

Film Quality

Using the average Rotten Tomatoes film rating of the actors in classic films at the point they starred in the role, compared against today’s top actors, alongside total award wins and nominations in all categories.

Career DNA

Using IMDB’s genre tags, each classic actor’s career, by genre was compared against today’s top actors at the current stage of their careers.

Pulp Fiction

Uma Thurman was just 24-years-old when she took on the role of Mia Wallace, and it would be Maisie Williams who would get the role if Tarantino was to remake the movie. The Game of Thrones star is just a year younger than Thurman was, has starred in just one fewer films and has a near identical average film rating score.

Perhaps more interesting is that the iconic roles of Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega (Samuel L. Jackson & John Travolta) would be taken up by Sam Claflin and John Krasinski…

If the remake decided to switch the roles up a little, Jennifer Anniston would be the most likely to replace John Travolta, while Tom Holland would be taking up the role made famous by Thurman.

Titanic

James Cameron’s Oscar-darling ‘Titanic’ may never see a remake but if it did…

Chris Evans seems a fair choice to replace Leo DiCaprio, despite being 16 years his senior at time of filming. The closest to Chris would be Daniel Kaluuya and after his recent star turns, we certainly aren’t against the idea.

Kate Winslet’s role would statistically go to Cynthia Erivo – the star of stage and screen is an Oscar away from the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) though she came mightily close with two nominations for her performance and song in ‘Harriet’ last year…

A remake of Titanic could be Erivo’s ticket to the exclusive club…

Casablanca

Of all the remakes, in all the world…

A cinematic classic, Casablanca is revered in it’s stature and is ‘probably’ untouchable when it comes to a remake. Though we never say never…

Should someone take the plunge in remaking this silver-screen icon, they would be back up with an incredible cast according to the algorithm.

First up, Kiki Layne would be the one to replace Ingrid Bergman. The If Beale Street Could Talk star’s statistics fall well in line with Bergman, with the 28-year-old American just one-year older than her counterpart at the time of Casablanca, while they have similar experience and a similar average film rating.

Paul Henreid was the original actor to play Victor Laszlo, the husband of Bergman’s Ilsa Lund. Today that role would likely be played by Zac Efron!!

Humphrey Bogart though would meet his match in Michael Fassbender, Fassbender is the same age and has featured in a similar number of films, while the proportion of romance films Bogart and Fassbender have been in both lie around the 13% mark.

Here’s looking at you Magneto…