I found this article talking out what someone has to do to secure the rights to make a remake of another work http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/how-do-you-se

I found this article talking out what someone has to do to secure the rights to make a remake of another work http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/how-do-you-secure-the-rights-for-a-remake-of-an-old-movie.html http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/how-do-you-secure-the-r... It basically points out that even shot-for-shot remakes are violating various copyrights, especially the copyright for the screenplay.