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I liked both the Twilight Zone episode and Magic, and actually I like that Magic doesn't have the magorealistic elements of the episode. There are things to expect and love from the Twilight Zone, things to expect and love in spades in fact, but the things to love in a strong psychological thriller are all present in Magic. I think remaking it would be a massive mistake, though. The whole bloody cast is just plain irreplaceable. And oh, you neglected one of the film's greatest merits: William Goldman scripted it. And while screenwriters are considered by some to be only nominal parts of the creation of a film, this is a critical thing to miss. And, with a remake, somebody else is likely to be taking on the script. Somebody who is not William Goldman. If you've seen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or the Princess Bride, imagine them in somebody else's hands, director, writer, the whole shebang. As well as lacking the sublime combination of whimsy and cynicism in Goldman's work, the casting would be glossied with today's stars and with source material like Goldman's how would that look? Imagine Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as Butch and Sundance or Johnny Depp as Wesley in a new Princess Bride. The old movie would have to square up against it's evil extradimensional soulpatched doppelganger a la Star Trek in the minds of a stupid and impressionable youth and all that would be left would be unsightly stains. All in all, too cerebral, too quirky, too fun and too heavy to be messed with. There can be only one William Goldman and only one of a Goldman scripted film.
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