There's nothing like a good old story. It's even better—as far as Hollywood is concerned—if that story started life as a book, and then was made into a successful film.

With movie budgets skyrocketing (Terminator 3 cost a reported $175 million), producers feel cushioned against failure if they have a property that has been tried and tested. The name-recognition factor and a built-in audience help, too. Tarzan is one of those perennial properties. Edgar Rice Burroughs first set down the myth of the ape-man in 1912, and the books have remained in print ever since. Type "Tarzan" into Amazon.com and you will find 240 different books, 55 videos, 14 soundtracks, six toys and games, seven video games and miscellaneous merchandise. Filmmakers first recognized the property in 1918, and the '30s saw Johnny Weissmuller swinging from the trees; 94 movies have been made so far, in many different languages. Now, in the 21st century, Tarzan is being reinvented yet again. Producer Jerry Weintraub and Warner Bros have hired hot screenwriter John August (Charlie's Angels) for a reported $1 million to update the original stories. August sees Tarzan 2004 not as a "jungle hippie" but is going back to Rice Burroughs to find a Tarzan who is "more ferocious and wild, like Wolverine without claws." August sees the potential to give Tarzan a fresh look and contemporary relevance in the same way that Superman and Batman have been reinterpreted over the years. The producers certainly hope that the new movie will spearhead a new franchise, giving rise to sequels, TV series, toys and a whole new book publishing program.

Richard Condon's The Manchurian Candidate is one of those titles that have become part of the American cultural lexicon. The Frank Sinatra movie, made in 1962, was hugely controversial as a scathing satire of McCarthyism, fears of Communism and intrusive government. Tina Sinatra had the rights to the book and film for years, and is now remaking the story with Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington and Liev Schrieber starring for director Jonathan Demme and producer Scott Rudin at Paramount. Screenwriter Daniel Pyne's brief was to make a contemporary political thriller. Although much of the first film was faithful to the book, Pyne found scenes and an "attitude" in the book that hadn't been used before. He also had to find the equivalent of Communism as the MacGuffin that provides the context for the story. The solution was to set it in the near future. The film will probably be released in late 2004, so it's set not during this election, but the one after. Pyne explained, "It's not the same world it was when Richard wrote the novel. So I'm taking the spirit in which he attacked contemporary politics, but we have moved beyond the political naivete of the 1950s. There was part of the Cold War that was real, and part was a fabrication for political purposes. Condon was saying that we have to be aware of being 'afraid.' We are going to try to translate this message for today." So will it be as controversial as the last version? "It could be... I was writing the first draft last summer, and every time I came up with a cool idea of what could happen, it happened." (Four Walls Eight Windows has a new paperback version out this September, fortuitously.)

From Washington politics to sexual politics, another book/film that made a potent contribution to the American cultural vocabulary is Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives, which is being re-made also by Scott Rudin for Paramount. It was first made into a movie in 1975 and struck a chord not only with audiences who like a good thriller, but also with people interested in the ongoing debate about feminism. A clue as to the tone of the new movie can be seen in the choice of satirist Paul Rudnick as screenwriter. The word on the new version is that it will be a black comedy rather than a straight thriller. The high-profile project has certainly attracted a stellar cast. Frank Oz is directing Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick, with Christopher Walken, Glenn Close and Bette Midler. HarperPerennial has the paperback.