Art of the Remake

Long before a film wins an Academy Award or dominates the global box office, it exists as little more than a whisper of potential.

For Hollywood producer and executive Guy Stodel, taking an unwritten concept and turning it into a commercial success requires more than just creative intuition.

Stodel has spent three decades steering some of the film industry's most memorable projects from initial script to major screen releases. He is quick to emphasize that films are deeply collaborative and that his role has always been about finding the right material and bringing together the people who can realize it.

His work spans major horror franchise films including “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning” and “Friday the 13th,” as well as highconcept science-fiction thrillers such as “What Happened to Monday? (Seven Sisters).”

While at Vendôme Pictures, Stodel also helped initiate and develop the English-language adaptation of “La Famille Bélier” with writerdirector Siân Heder — the project that ultimately became “CODA.” Apple later acquired the finished film for a reported $25 million at Sundance and became the first streaming-distributed film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

While audiences often view Hollywood through the glamour of red carpets and star-studded sets, Stodel views the entertainment industry through a lens familiar to any seasoned entrepreneur.

"Every movie is a startup," he said. "You're raising capital, building a team, managing risk, and trying to convince people to believe in an idea before it exists."

That entrepreneurial mindset was cultivated during his time at the University of South Florida, where he learned to navigate uncertainty and analyze consumer behavior while earning a marketing degree from USF’s Muma College of Business.

"Entertainment is obviously a creative business, but it's also a business,” Stodel said. “You're constantly evaluating risk, understanding audiences, analyzing markets, and trying to make informed decisions with incomplete information. That foundation has helped me throughout my career."

A narrative gamble

Throughout his career, which includes senior executive roles at Lionsgate, New Line Cinema, Paramount Vantage and Vendôme Pictures, Stodel avoids boxing himself into a single genre. Instead, he focuses on understanding why certain stories resonate with audiences while others fade away.

In analyzing what makes a story endure, Stodel divides film and television projects into two distinct categories: stories that satisfy audiences and stories that surprise them.

"The films that surprise audiences are usually the ones that endure," Stodel explained.

"What's interesting is that they all begin with familiar genre touchstones. “Get Out” is a horror movie. “District 9” is science fiction. “Slumdog Millionaire” is essentially a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. Those familiar frameworks draw audiences in. The surprise is what they're really about."

While satisfaction comes from delivering established franchise expectations, Stodel believes the ultimate goal for any producer lies somewhere in the middle.

"The holy grail is making something that surprises audiences while completely satisfying them," he said. "Those are the movies that become part of the culture."

Remaking slasher classics

Achieving that balance requires a willingness to embrace risk when industry consensus points in the opposite direction.

When Stodel helped champion New Line’s involvement in the 2003 remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” almost no one in Hollywood wanted to pursue the project. At the time, prevailing horror trends favored self-referential, meta-narratives like “Scream.”

"My instinct, and the creative team’s, was that audiences wanted to be genuinely frightened again," he said. "Most younger moviegoers hadn't seen the original “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” but they'd grown up hearing about it. The title itself had become legendary. I felt there was a generation waiting to experience it for themselves, and fortunately that instinct proved right."

A similar trust in the material guided Stodel’s early work on “CODA.” Working alongside the teams at Vendôme and Lionsgate, he helped bring Heder to the adaptation of the French film “La Famille Bélier,” a quiet family drama about a Deaf family. The project evolved into “CODA,” authentically cast with Deaf actors, and went on to captivate global audiences and redefine streaming acquisitions.

"Different projects, different risks, but they all came down to trusting an instinct and finding the right collaborators who believed in it, too,” Stodel said.

Beyond the red carpet

For those outside the entertainment industry, the day-today responsibilities of a Hollywood producer are often shrouded in myth. Beyond the glitz of movie premieres, Stodel says producing is a marathon of development, negotiation and persistence that begins years before a camera ever rolls.

"Everyone imagines producers spending their days on set with actors," he said. "That's actually a very small part of the  job. Most of my time is spent working with writers and directors, developing scripts, then trying to attach actors and package the project before taking it out to buyers."

That process demands an extraordinary amount of resilience and conviction. As founder of ROSTO, Inc., Stodel develops and produces film and television projects, including adaptations of international material. His recent work has included a first-look television deal with 20th Television.

"The biggest surprise is probably how much grit it takes, and how much positivity, passion and belief you have to inject into a project," he noted. "People feed off your conviction. If you stop believing, everyone else will, too."

That insistence on authenticity is particularly essential when engaging with horror fans, whom Stodel considers among the sharpest and most dedicated audiences in film.

"Horror fans are probably the smartest audience in movies," he said. "They watch everything. They know the history. They know the directors. They know the references. You can't fake authenticity because they'll know immediately. What I also love is that horror fans don't care whether a movie costs nothing or $200 million. They care whether the movie works."

Starting with a great idea

As the media landscape evolves through shifting distribution models, streaming platforms and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, Stodel says the core element of filmmaking remains unchanged.

"Hollywood has always reinvented itself," he said. "Ironically, I don't think technology is the biggest disruption; audience behavior is. COVID-19 permanently changed viewing habits, and everyone is still adapting to how people consume entertainment today."

Despite those shifts in consumer habits, Stodel believes the fundamental driver of the entertainment economy remains constant: a compelling idea.

"What hasn't changed is that it all starts with a great idea," he said. "Great ideas become great scripts. Great scripts attract great directors and great actors. That's still how movies get financed and made. Technology will keep evolving, but audiences will always want great stories."

After more than three decades in Hollywood, Stodel continues to develop and produce new projects with the same enthusiasm he brought to the beginning of his career, combining business discipline with creative passion.

"Producing requires relentless optimism," he said. "You're trying to build something that depends on hundreds of people, thousands of decisions, and, frankly, a little bit of luck. The trick is putting yourself in a position to create your own luck and recognizing when an opportunity is real." ^ROI

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