Hollywood loves a good story. And if it's a really good story, chances are a remake will find its way to theaters a few years -- or decades -- later. So with several flicks from the past getting the remake treatment recently (including The In-Laws, Seabiscuit, and Freaky Friday), the summer 2003 movie season may seem a little like cinematic deja vu.

The In-Laws

First down the aisle this year is The In-Laws. Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks play mismatched prospective fathers-in-law who meet on the eve of their children's marriage, only to become mixed up in international intrigue. Douglas is an in-your-face CIA agent; Brooks a mild-mannered and phobia-filled podiatrist. A dynamic duo trading comedic barbs and one-liners is formed.

Candace Bergen makes an appearance as the sharp-tongued and therapy-addicted ex-wife of Douglas' character. It was a reunion of sorts for the actors: When Douglas was 14, Bergen lived down the street from his father, Kirk Douglas.

The In-Laws original was a sleeper hit in 1979, starring Alan Arkin as a fastidious dentist and Peter Falk as a maniac secret agent. For Falk, the bullfighting ring used in the movie's climax was a familiar set. It was used in his TV movie Columbo: A Matter of Honor in 1976.

Screenwriter Andrew Bergman (with Blazing Saddles, Fletch, and Honeymoon in Vegas among his credits) crafted a caper that includes counterfeiting, shootouts, and a South American leader who thinks he's Senor Wences. Falk and Arkin liked working together on The In-Laws so much, they later teamed up again, along with Bergman, for another buddy comedy: 1986's Big Trouble.

Seabiscuit

A decades-old tale was hurdled back into the spotlight with author Laura Hillenbrand's 2001 best-seller Seabiscuit: An American Legend, the true story of a Depression-era racehorse who rode to greatness against the odds. Now, it's getting the Hollywood treatment with the 2003 release based on the book, with Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, and Chris Cooper starring as the unlikely triumvirate behind the improbable success.

Seabiscuit will be Maguire's first picture since last summer's mega-blockbuster Spider-Man, and he reportedly had to lose 20 pounds to play the boxer-turned-jockey Red Pollard. But it might be worth it: he earned $12.5 million to saddle up and it's already generating Oscar buzz.

In 1949, Hollywood took the real-life Seabiscuit story and transformed it into a vehicle for Shirley Temple and Barry Fitzgerald titled The Story of Seabiscuit. Temple, in one of her last films, played the loyal niece to Fitgerald's horse trainer. The pair flee to America to escape the memory of a family member's death and find solace on a Kentucky farm and in the horse Seabiscuit. Although the horse was named Seabiscuit in the movie, most of the other facts and names were changed for this highly fictionalized account.

Freaky Friday

Friday get freaky again this summer when Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan play a mom and daughter who switch bodies and sees what it's like to walk in the other person's shoes, literally. A remake of 1976's family comedy Freaky Friday, the 2003 version originally had Annette Benning attached to star and Ozzy offspring Kelly Osbourne slated to play a small part, but both later dropped out.

Already a screen veteran, Jodie Foster starred as the teen daughter in the original Disney movie, interestingly released the same year as she would get an Academy Award nomination for her role as a teen prostitute in the gritty Taxi Driver. The mom role went to Barbara Harris, who began her career in Chicago theater with future stars Ed Asner, Mike Nichols and Elaine May.

The 1976 version is dotted with then-famous or soon-to-be famous TV actors, including John Astin (The Addams Family), Dick Van Patten (Eight Is Enough), and Ruth Buzzi (Laugh-In).

The film, based on Mary Rodgers' book, has been remade several times. Among the body-swapping entries are a TV movie airing in 1995 with Shelley Long and a male version released in theaters in 1987, Like Father, Like Son.

The Italian Job

Charismatic criminals, gold heists, and Mini Cooper car chases jump back to the silver screen this summer in a remake of 1969's The Italian Job.

Mark Wahlberg stars as career criminal Charlie Croker, who assembles a gang of crooks to help him pull off a huge gold heist. To escape, they create the largest Los Angeles traffic jam in history with the aid of some traffic light and computer trickery. Wahlberg and crew, meanwhile, make their getaways on sidewalks, through the subways, and across Hollywood's Walk of Fame in their souped-up but tiny BMW Mini Coopers, squeezing through alleyways and tunnels to safety.

Wahlberg is joined by Edward Norton as a partner in crime, Charlize Theron as a sexy safecracker, a computer genius played by Seth Green and Donald Sutherland's veteran criminal.

To create the extensive L.A. traffic jam, the films producers shut down two blocks of Hollywood Boulevard, right where Mann's Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater are located, and one of the city's most popular tourist spots. The results were cars at a standstill on film and in real life. The shoot affected traffic from the south of Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley for a week.

With The Italian Job, Wahlberg is fast becoming Hollywood's remake master. Counting the current movie, three of his past four flicks have been remakes. He took over the Charlton Heston role in 2001's Planet of the Apes and starred in The Truth About Charlie, a 2002 redo of 1963's Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn film Charade.

The 2003 F. Gary Gray-directed The Italian Job does pay a subtle homage to its roots. In one scene, Michael Caine -- the star of the original The Italian Job -- is seen on a large-screen television in a clip from his famous movie Alfie.

The Italian Job original, made in 1969, is now considered a British caper cult classic. And unlike the 2003 version, the heist and later plot actually take place in Italy.

Caine is the original movie's ringleader, who leads the gold heist and the subsequent wild Mini Cooper car chases galore on the sidewalks, rooftops, sewers, and rivers of Turin, Italy. (Decades later, stock footage from the film could be seen in the 1980s television series McGuyver, made by the same studio as the movie -- Paramount.)

The famous ending, when the gang's bus teeters on the side of a cliff, was not liked by the cast and crew, the movie's screenwriter recently revealed to Esquire magazine. Troy Kennedy Martin also said that director Peter Collinson hated it so much that he made his assistant film it.

Joining Caine in the very British cast were comedian Benny Hill and actor/writer Noel Coward, in his last film appearance. He reportedly had to be coaxed out of self-imposed exile in Switzerland to play the role and was not in good health on the set.

Adding a groovy beat to the breakneck action was future "We Are the World" producer Quincy Jones, who has scored films from the 1960s to the current "Austin Powers" series. And although he has a pop star past, Wahlberg made no musical contributions to the 2003 The Italian Job. Before becoming a movie star, Wahlberg was known in the early 1990s as rapper Marky Mark and brother to one of the members of teen group New Kids on the Block.

by Amy Cox