List of modernized adaptations of old works

Sometimes, an author will write a story that is consciously based on an older story (typically in the public domain) but with a modernized setting and characters. Sometimes the original work is still copyrighted, but the writer includes the minimum quota of differences to avoid being a direct plagiarism while using an immediately recognizable story template.

Film

• 10 Things I Hate About You – William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew set in a Seattle suburbia in the modern day^[1]
• 20th Century Oz - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz set in the surfing and motorcyclist cultures of Australia in the 1970s
• A.I.: Artificial Intelligence - self-referential version of The Adventures of Pinocchio set in a post-apocalyptic North America
• Affluenza - The Great Gatsby in 2008 Long Island
• Aisha - Jane Austen's novel Emma in modern India
• Alien From L.A. - very loosely inspired by Journey to the Center of the Earth
• An American Summer - Mark Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer set in 1978 Southern California^[2]
• Apocalypse Now – Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella Heart of Darkness set in 1969 during the Vietnam War^[3]
• August Rush - loosely based on Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist
• Bangaru Papa - Silas Marner set in India
• Beastly - Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's "Beauty and the Beast"
• Bedazzled and its remake - the Faust legend
• Big Business - A Comedy of Errors with gender reversal
• The Birdcage – La Cage aux Folles
• Black Knight - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with an African American protagonist, hence the pun on the common term black knight
• Black Swan - self-referential reimagining of Swan Lake partly influenced by The Double and Perfect Blue
• Blackenstein - An African-American version of Frankenstein.
• Blacula - Dracula
• Bride and Prejudice – Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, set in modern India
• Bridget Jones's Diary - Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice set in modern England
• Broken Lance - King Lear
• The Castle of Cagliostro - the Arsene Lupin character, represented here by a supposed grandson
• Castle in the Sky - steampunk cartoon loosely based on the Laputa subplot from Gulliver's Travels
• A Cinderella Story – Cinderella in modern Los Angeles
• Carmen Jones – Prosper Mérimée's 1845 novella Carmen set in 1940s North Carolina
• Clueless – Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma in modern Los Angeles^[1]
• Company of Wolves – Little Red Riding Hood
• Cosi - self-referential version of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte set in modern Melbourne, Australia
• Coriolanus – Shakespeare's tragedy set in modern times, using the original dialogue
• Crime and Punishment in Suburbia – Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment set in a suburban high school.
• Cruel Intentions – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' novel Les Liaisons dangereuses set in a New York City prep school^[1]
• The Cutting Edge - Olympic figure skating movie with elements of The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing
• Cymbeline - Shakespeare's play about Britain at the time of Caesar Augustus, set in modern American gangland
• Deliver Us From Eva - loosely linked to The Taming of the Shrew
• Die, Mommie, Die! – based on the Greek tragedy Electra by Sophocles^[4][5]
• Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde - Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde with an African-American protagonist
• Dr. Dolittle and its sequel - Doctor John Dolittle, originally written as a white man who espoused the questionable racial views of British colonialism, is reimagined as a modern African-American. Virtually the only plot element in common with the traditional version of the character is his ability to communicate with animals.
• Don Jon - Don Juan legends
• Don Juan DeMarco - Don Juan legends
• Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman - the Don Juan legend with gender reversal
• Doraemon: Nobita's Treasure Island - Treasure Island (novel)
• The Double - Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1846 novel of the same name, set in the 1950s
• Downsizing - The Incredible Shrinking Man
• Dracula and Dracula's Daughter - The 19th century setting of Dracula was abandoned by Universal Pictures to save money, and plenty of then-cutting-edge automobiles appear in these two movies, as well as airplanes traveling across Europe in the second film.
• Dracula 2000 – Bram Stoker's Dracula
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde – a parody of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, set in modern New York City.
• Easy A – a self-referential adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter set in a modern California high school^[1]
• Edward II (film) - Edward II (play) with Christopher Marlowe's text but an alternate 1990s
• Edward Scissorhands - Frankenstein
• Ella Enchanted - "Cinderella" set in a world full of mythological creatures, talking animals, and a bit of steampunk
• Enchanted (2007 film) - Snow White and Cinderella, among other fairy tales, set in modern New York via time travel and inter-dimensional travel
• Ever After – Cinderella in Renaissance France
• The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Evil Dead (2013 film) - spoof, amalgamating H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon series and (in the third movie only) Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
• Eyes Wide Shut - Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Traumnovelle set in modern New York City
• The Fisher King - loosely and self-referentially based on a tale from Arthurian legend
• A Fistful of Dollars - Red Harvest by way of Yojimbo, set on the US-Mexican border in the late 19th century.
• Forbidden Planet – William Shakespeare's The Tempest set on the planet Altair IV in the 23rd century.
• Frankenhooker - Frankenstein
• Frankenstein (1931 film) - the 18th century setting of Frankenstein (novel) was abandoned by Universal Pictures to save money, and plenty of then-modern props appear throughout this film and its sequels
• Frankenweenie and its remake - Frankenstein where the "monster" is a pet dog
• Freaky Friday - Vice Versa (novel) but with its genders reversed.
• Freeway – Modernized Little Red Riding Hood with the pun referring to "'hood," a low-income urban neighborhood.
• From Prada to Nada – Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility set in modern Los Angeles.
• G (2002 film) - The Great Gatsby with African-American main characters
• Get Over It - William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream set in a modern high school^[1]
• Ghosts of Girlfriends Past - A Christmas Carol. Although this story is frequently adapted to modern times, this adaptation is unusual for completely eliminating Christmas from the plot.
• Gnomeo and Juliet – a self-referential adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet wherein the main characters are enlivened statues in two adjacent garden displays in modern England
• A Good Woman - Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan set in the 1930s
• Great Expectations (1998 film) – Charles Dickens' same-titled 19th century novel set in New York City at the close of the 20th century
• The Great Mouse Detective - Sherlock Holmes with animal characters
• Gulliver's Travels (2010 film) - the classic fable by Jonathan Swift. Instead of an 18th-century English doctor, Gulliver is now a 21st-century New York postal clerk who loves pop cultural fantasy and make believe; after getting lost among the Lilliputians he creates for them a religion based on himself by acting out the Star Wars movie saga which he tells them is the story of his own life.
• The Guns of Navarone – The Seven Samurai set in the Dodecanese during World War II.
• Hamlet (1996 film) - Shakespeare's Hamlet set in Victorian times
• Hamlet (2000 film) – William Shakespeare's Hamlet set in modern New York City
• Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters - Hansel and Gretel set in a quasi-steampunk world with clever anachronisms
• Happy, Texas - broadly based on "The Emperor's New Clothes"
• Henry V (1989 film) - This adaptation of the play cleaves to a medieval setting, except for a man called Chorus who wears a modern suit of clothes and regularly invades the scenery to make fourth wall-breaking speeches. A brief frame story at the very beginning and end of the film, shows Chorus living in a modern sound stage set.
• Hoi Polloi (1935 film) - Shaw's Pygmalion with The Three Stooges taking the place of Eliza Doolittle
• Hollow Man (film) - H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man
• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (franchise) – The Incredible Shrinking Man
• Hoodwinked - Little Red Riding Hood by way of Rashomon
• Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil - Hansel and Gretel, among other fairy tales
• Hook - Peter Pan by way of Young Frankenstein
• The Hours (film) – self-referential adaptation of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• House of Strangers - King Lear
• I Was A Teenage Frankenstein – loosely based on Frankenstein
• I Was A Teenage Werewolf – loosely based on The Wolf Man (1941 film)
• Igor - Mary W. Shelley's Frankenstein and its previous film history are spoofed
• The Incredible Shrinking Woman - The Incredible Shrinking Man but with its gender reversed.
• Independence Day (1996 film) - H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
• Joe MacBeth - retelling of William Shakespeare's Macbeth as a crime drama set during the 1930s
• Journey to the Center of the Earth, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and a planned third film - Self-referential pastiches of Jules Verne novels, with a secret history as backstory.
• Just One of the Guys - Twelfth Night
• Kandukondain Kandukondain – Tamil adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility
• A Kid in King Arthur's Court - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
• King of California - loosely based on Don Quixote
• King Kong (1976 film) – updated version of the 1933 film
• Kiss Me, Kate (film) - self-referential adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew
• A Knight's Tale - loosely based on elements of The Canterbury Tales with humorous anachronisms included
• Last Man Standing - Red Harvest and/or Yojimbo
• Les Liaisons Dangereuses (film) - an 18th-century novel is reassigned to 1959
• The Libertine - based on the life and writings of scandalous poet Earl John Wilmot of Rochester. A frame story has the character of Wilmot breaking the fourth wall and making deliberately anachronistic references.
• The Lion King – William Shakespeare's Hamlet as an animal fable.
• Living Dolls – The subplot is referred to Cinderella.
• Love at First Bite - Dracula (novel) set in 1970s New York
• Love's Labour's Lost (2000 film) - Love's Labours Lost set in 1939, with the characters singing popular 1930s songs
• The Magic Flute (2006 film) - based on the opera of the same name, set in World War I
• The Magnificent Seven – The Seven Samurai in the old west
• The Manchurian Candidate and its remake - one subplot is a self-referential adaptation of the House of Atreus legend
• Mars Attacks! - H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
• Matilda – Roald Dahl's novel but updated and Americanized.
• Material Girls - Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility set in modern Los Angeles.
• Men of Respect – William Shakespeare's Macbeth recast as a Mafia power struggle in 1990
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film) – a William Shakespeare play set around 1900
• A Midsummer Night's Rave – William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream set in the rave scene
• Monsters vs. Aliens – paying homages to 1950s sci-fi and horror movies
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Arthurian legend retold with humorous anachronisms and breaking the fourth wall
• The Muppet Christmas Carol - A Christmas Carol with humorous anachronisms and breaking the fourth wall
• Muppet Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island with humorous anachronisms and breaking the fourth wall
• The Musketeer - loosely based on The Three Musketeers with anachronistic martial arts scenes
• My Kingdom (film) - King Lear
• My Own Private Idaho – one subplot is based on the Falstaff subplots from William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V; another is inspired by George Eliot's Silas Marner
• The Nutty Professor and its remake - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• O (film) – William Shakespeare's Othello set in a modern private high school^[1]
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Homer's Odyssey adapted to 1930s Mississippi
• Oliver & Company - Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist as an animal fable
• Orfeu - the Orpheus and Eurydice myth set in Brazil
• Penelope (2006 film) - "Beauty and the Beast" with genders reversed, or possibly "The Wife of Bath's Tale"
• Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge - The Phantom of the Opera
• The Phantom of the Opera (1989 film) - the French tale set in 1980s New York City
• Phantom of the Paradise - The Phantom of the Opera
• Ponyo - "The Little Mermaid" set in Japan at the start of the 21st century
• Pretty Woman – Shaw's Pygmalion set in modern Los Angeles, also with self-references to Cinderella^[1]
• Rags (2012 film) – Cinderella – Gender Inverted, Set in New York
• Ran (1985 film) - King Lear relocated to medieval Japan
• Red Riding Hood (2011 film) - the Little Red Riding Hood legend, set in a generic medieval country where the characters exhibit mildly anachronistic attitudes and mannerisms.
• Rent (film) - self-referential adaptation of La Boheme set in 1990s New York
• Richard III (1995 film) - the play's original text, but with many subplots and characters cut, and set in the 1930s
• Robin Hood – an animal fable version.
• Romeo and Juliet (1996 movie) – the Shakespeare play set in modern Florida, using mostly dialogue from the play
• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (film) - a subplot of Hamlet set in Elizabethan times but with interludes of steampunk and breaking the fourth wall.
• Roxanne – Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac
• Scarface (1983 film) - based on an older film which was in turn loosely based on the historical career of Al Capone
• Scotland, PA – William Shakespeare's Macbeth set in a fast food restaurant in Scotland, Pennsylvania
• Scrooged – Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol set in 1980s Manhattan.
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - self-referential spoof of the Rape of the Sabine Women, set in Oregon Territory in 1850
• She's All That – Shaw's Pygmalion set in a modern high school^[1]
• She's the Man – William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will set in modern Californian suburbia^[1]
• Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon - Sherlock Holmes, a quintessentially Victorian character, is depicted as a British intelligence agent in World War II.
• Shrek franchise - virtually every traditional European fairy tale is spoofed in this series, set in a world which mixes medieval and modern technology and attitudes. E.g., Camelot is reimagined as a high school, and Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella become an analog of Charlie's Angels.
• A Simple Twist of Fate – George Eliot's novel Silas Marner
• Sita Sings the Blues – Feminist retelling of the Indian epic Ramayana, interspersing ancient and modern settings
• Spike (2008 film) – Cupid and Psyche, Hades and Persephone, Beauty and the Beast
• Start the Revolution Without Me - mashes-up spoofs of A Tale of Two Cities, The Corsican Brothers, and The Man in the Iron Mask
• Sydney White – Snow White set in a modern university
• Tamara Drewe - Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd
• Teenage Bonnie and Klepto Clyde - the history of Bonnie and Clyde
• Tempest – William Shakespeare's The Tempest
• A Thousand Acres - King Lear
• Throne of Blood – MacBeth relocated to feudal Japan.
• Time After Time (1979 film) - self-referential adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine combined with Jack the Ripper conspiracy theory
• Titus (film) - Titus Andronicus set in an alternate history where the Roman Empire exists in the 20th century
• Trading Places - mash-up of The Prince and the Pauper and Shaw's Pygmalion, set in 1980s New York
• Treasure Planet - a space opera version of Treasure Island
• Trishna – Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles
• The Triumph of Love - Marivaux's play set in his time but with brief interludes of steampunk and breaking the fourth wall
• Tromeo and Juliet – A modern, punk adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
• The Truth About Cats & Dogs – Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac set in modern Los Angeles^[6]
• Twelfth Night (1996 film) - a Shakespeare play with a Victorian setting
• Virgin Territory - spoof of Giovanni Bocaccio's Decameron with humorous anachronisms of speech and custom
• War of the Worlds, the 1953 and 2005 adaptations - H.G. Wells' 19th-century English novel, Americanized and reset to the 20th and/or 21st centuries.
• Warm Bodies (film) – William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet where Romeo is a zombie
• West Side Story (film) – William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
• Whatever It Takes – Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac set in a modern high school^[1]
• What Maisie Knew (film) - Henry James novel
• Where the Heart Is (1990 film) - King Lear
• The Wiz (film) - retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with the Kansas subplot relocated to 1970s Harlem
• Yellow Sky - retelling of William Shakespeare's The Tempest as a western movie
• Young Frankenstein - self-referential spoof of Mary W. Shelley's Frankenstein, primarily based on previous film adaptations of that novel

Television and TV-movies

• Akumaizer 3 - Tokusatsu version of The Three Musketeers.
• Ash vs. Evil Dead - self-referential spoof of H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon series, among other influences
• Beauty and the Beast series and its reboot - Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's "Beauty and the Beast" by way of Batman
• Carmen: A Hip Hopera – Carmen by Prosper Merimee & Georges Bizet
• Case Closed (manga) - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, set in modern Japan.
• Christmas Eve on Sesame Street - the Bert and Ernie subplot is based on O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi"
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (2002) - film, based on a novel, places Cinderella in Baroque Holland
• Crime and Punishment: A Falsified Romance – a live action series based on a manga adapting Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, set in Iwate, Japan.^[7]
• Darkwing Duck – parody of comic book characters by way of Young Frankenstein.
• A Diva's Christmas Carol - A Christmas Carol
• Descendants (2015 film) - mash-up spoof of various fairy tales including Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty by way of Young Frankenstein
• Don Quixote (2000 film) - This adaptation mostly keeps the original circa-1605 setting, but has one scene set in the late 19th century as a joke.
• Dragon Ball Z – Journey to the West with guns, tanks, and other modern props
• Ducktales – Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge by way of Indiana Jones and other film franchises.
• Elementary (TV series) – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, set in modern New York City.
• Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (TV Program) - O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" as an animal fable
• Empire (2015 TV series) - A Hip-hop retelling of The Lion in Winter and William Shakespeare's King Lear
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its spinoff Xena: Warrior Princess - frequently humorous retellings of Greek mythology, primarily the Hercules stories as the title suggests, with many deliberate anachronisms in the dialogue and general views of the characters
• Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story - "Jack and the Beanstalk" by way of Rashomon and Young Frankenstein
• King of Texas - King Lear set in Texas in the early 1840s
• Kiss Me, Kate (film) - self-referential adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew
• Kumkum Bhagya – Hindi TV serial adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility
• Lost in Space - certain story arcs in this series include blatant space opera adaptations of the Odyssey, the Niebelunglied, Treasure Island, and Mutiny on the Bounty, among other plots
• Lupin III - the Arsene Lupin character, represented here by a supposed grandson
• Maze (novel) - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Dungeons and Dragons
• Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol - animated version of A Christmas Carol presented as a play-within-a-play
• Mockingbird Lane – A dark, dramatic version of The Munsters.
• Motocrossed - Twelfth Night
• The Muppets' Wizard of Oz - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz set in modern times, with Dorothy and her family recast as African Americans, and many fourth wall breaks.
• The Mysterious Cities of Gold - loosely based on Scott O'Dell's The King's Fifth
• Othello (2001 TV film) - Othello is a police commander in modern England
• Ouran High School Host Club – William Shakespeare's As You Like It
• Parenthood (2010 TV series) - loosely based on the 1989 film
• Phantom of the Megaplex - The Phantom of the Opera
• Rashomon spoofs - countless television series have had at least one episode spoofing the Japanese motion picture Rashomon (set in the Middle Ages), often in the context of either a present-day situation comedy, a space opera, a dark fantasy world, or some conjunction of more than one of these. Alvin and the Chipmunks, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Farscape among them.
• Revenge (TV series) - loosely based on Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo
• Rugrats - influenced by Look Who's Talking and Sugar and Spike.
• Saraswatichandra (TV series) (2013–14) - modern day adaptation of Saraswatichandra (novel) (1887-1902) which is set in feudal India.
• Saru no Gundan (1974) - loosely based on Planet of the Apes.
• Selfie (TV series) - loosely based on Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
• Sherlock (TV series) – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, updated to the 2010s
• The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow - Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" set in the world of the Smurfs
• Star Trek franchise - certain episodes of the various Star Trek series are space opera retellings (often self-referential or with the intention otherwise made clear) of The Epic of Gilgamesh, Beowulf, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Paradise Lost, Alice in Wonderland, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Turn of the Screw, Rashomon, Brigadoon, the Helen of Troy legend, the Robin Hood legend, the Sherlock Holmes series, and other literary works.
• TaleSpin – Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book by way of Indiana Jones
• Ulysses 31 – loosely based on Homer's Odyssey
• Uncle Buck (2016 TV series) – Based on the 1989 film but this version has African-American main characters.
• Willa: An American Snow White (1998, PBS) - self-referential spoof set in Virginia in the early 20th century
• Wuthering High School (2015) - Wuthering Heights

Web series

• 221B - based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• A Bit Much - inspired by Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• The Autobiography of Jane Eyre - based on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Bright Summer Night - inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
• Carmilla - based on Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
• Dashwood Days - based on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Dashwood Diaries - based on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• East and West - based on North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Elinor and Marianne Take Barton - based on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Emma Approved – Jane Austen's Emma
• The Emma Project - Jane Austen's Emma
• Emma Wood - Jane Austen's Emma
• Frankenstein M. D. - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• From Mansfield With Love - Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• Further Adventures of Cupid and Eros - based on Greco-Roman mythology
• Green Gables Fables - based on Anne of Green Gables and Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery
• The Grey Tarmac Road - based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and associated works by L. Frank Baum
• Grimm Reflections - based on Grimm's Fairy Tales
• Hashtag Hamlet - based on Hamlet by William Shakespeare (forthcoming)
• In Earnest - based on The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
• The Adventures of Jamie Watson and Sherlock Holmes - based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Jo March Vlog - based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Jules and Monty - based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
• Kate the Cursed - based on The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
• The Lizzie Bennet Diaries – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
• Lil Women - based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Lovely Little Losers - based on Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare
• Maggie Hale's Corner- based on North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
• The March Family Letters - based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Mars and Elly - based on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Middlemarch: The Series - based on Middlemarch by George Eliot
• A Midsemester Night's Dream - based on A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
• The Misselthwaite Archives - based on The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Much Ado About A Webseries - based on Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy - based on Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
• Nick Carraway Chronicles - based on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Northbound - based on Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• Notes by Christine - based on The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
• Nothing Much to Do - based on Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• ProjectAOGG (working title) - based on Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (forthcoming)
• Project Green Gables - based on Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
• SHAKES - based on Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• Twincidents- based on The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
• Welcome to Sanditon - based on Sanditon by Jane Austen

Literature

• A True Novel by Minae Mizumura - Wuthering Heights set in mid-20th-century Japan
• Ana of California by Andi Teran - Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables
• Andy and the Lion by James Daugherty - children's book, relocating "Androcles and the Lion" to a 1930s American small town
• Anno Dracula by Kim Newman - Bram Stoker's Dracula
• Beauty and the Beast - 17th-century tale by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve is a retelling of the Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche
• Brazil (novel) by John Updike - Tristan and Isolde set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro
• "Born with the Dead" by Robert Silverberg – the myth of Orpheus relocated to near-future Zanzibar
• Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James - sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
• Dorian, an Imitation by Will Self – Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Eligible (novel) by Curtis Sittenfeld - Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice set in contemporary Cincinnati, Ohio
• Emma (novel) by Alexander McCall Smith - Jane Austen's Emma
• Fanny (novel) by Erica Jong - John Cleland's Fanny Hill
• Foe (novel) by J. M. Coetzee - Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - self-referential take on Dracula (novel) by way of Indiana Jones
• Joseph Andrews (novel) by Henry Fielding - Cervantes' Don Quixote
• Lady Macbeth's Daughter by Lisa Klein – William Shakespeare's Macbeth
• A Midsummer Night's Steampunk by Scott E. Tarbet - William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a Steampunk retelling brought forward to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
• New Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms by Matthew Hodgart - sequel to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels
• Night's Daughter by Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Magic Flute
• Ophelia by Lisa Klein – William Shakespeare's Hamlet
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith - Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, with zombies.
• Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters - Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, with sea monsters
• The Sotweed Factor by John Barth - Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski – William Shakespeare's Hamlet
• Tam Lin (novel) by Pamela Dean – the Scottish folk tale relocated to a college in early 1970s Minnesota
• Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis - Cupid and Psyche
• Ulysses (novel) by James Joyce - The Odyssey reenacted in Dublin, Ireland on 16 June 1904

Theatre

• All Shook Up - Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
• The Bomb-itty of Errors - A Comedy of Errors as a hip-hop musical
• The Boys from Syracuse - Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) - humorous mash-up purporting to include at least one element of every play William Shakespeare wrote
• Damn Yankees – the Faust legend
• Godspell - the New Testament retold with deliberate anachronisms which serve both humorous and allegorical purposes
• I Love You Because - Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
• Into the Woods - musical mash-up of fairy-tales including those from The Brothers Grimm.
• Jesus Christ Superstar - the New Testament retold with deliberate anachronisms for both humor and allegory
• Kiss Me, Kate - self-referential adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew
• Mourning Becomes Electra - the House of Atreus story relocated to New England in 1865
• Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 - based on War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Republic - based on Henry IV by William Shakespeare
• The Rocky Horror Show - musical spoof of Frankenstein, primarily the 1931 film adaptation rather than the novel itself
• Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead - Hamlet retold from different perspectives, with minimal fourth wall breaking.
• Rent – La Boheme
• Spamalot — musical spoof of the Arthurian Legend, based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• Twist - Oliver Twist
• West Side Story – William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
• The Wiz - retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with the Kansas subplot relocated to 1970s Harlem
• Young Frankenstein - musical spoof of Frankenstein, based on the 1931 and 1974 film versions rather than the novel itself

References