Thunderball vs. Never Say Never Again
Thunderball and Never Say Never Again are unique pair of films. The latter is a remake of the former and both star the same actor, Sean Connery. It is not uncommon for a remake to feature an original cast member in a different role (a la Michael Caine in Sleuth in which he played one of the two leads in the first film version and then the other one in the -far inferior- second one). The remake of Cape Fear, which I like more than the original, features the original stars Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum in small but crucial roles. In my post for Vanilla Sky I discussed that Penelope Cruz played the same role in both the Spanish language original and the English language remake a few years later, but she was the second lead. Generally remakes cast different leads either because they are made many years apart or in a different language. Never Say Never Again curiously takes the original James Bond, pairs him with different behind the scenes talent and retells one of his stories