For the sake of variety, I thought it would be fun to suggest one film from each decade of the 1900s, each one of a different genre. Remaking some would delight me, others terrify me, and the rest are curveballs, as I have no idea how they’d be remade.
1902: A Trip to the Moon, Georges Melies’s whimsical sci-fi.
1919: Male and Female, Cecil B. Demille’s silent adventure film that explores gender and class.
1927: The Jazz Singer, Alan Crossland’s musical, and the first ever talkie.
1933: The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Fritz Lang’s supernaturalish crime piece. It pissed off the Nazis, so is probably worth a look.
1944: Gaslight, George Cukor’s psychological thriller which ended up naming af orm of abuse,
1952: High Noon, Fred Zimmerman’s western, which some argue is actually an anti-western.
1962: To Kill A Mockingbird, Robert Mulligan’s courtroom drama, which contains possibly the best fictional father ever..
1973: Don’t Look Now, Nicolas Roeg’s horror, for my money, one of the best in the genre..
1986: Blue Velvet, David Lynch’s Crime Thriller, including a scene it took me several tries to get through.
1998: Dark City, Alex Proyas’s Sci-Fi Noir, and a personal favourite.
I hope this helps, and I’d love to see what you do with them.