List of modernized adaptations of old works

Sometimes, an author will write a story that is consciously based on an older story (typically in the public domain) but with a modernized setting and characters. Sometimes the original work is still copyrighted, but the writer includes the minimum quota of differences to avoid being a direct plagiarism while using an immediately recognizable story template.

Film

• 10 Things I Hate About You – William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew re-located to modern Seattle suburbia
• 20th Century Oz - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz set in the surfing and motorcyclist cultures of Australia in the 1970s
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (film) - broadly based on The Odyssey of Homer, among other sources.
• A.I.: Artificial Intelligence - self-referential update of The Adventures of Pinocchio set in a post-apocalyptic North America
• Affluenza - The Great Gatsby in 2008 Long Island
• Aisha - Jane Austen's Emma in modern India.
• Akira (1988 film) – references to Metropolis, Carrie and Blade Runner
• Aladdin (1992 Disney film) - the Aladdin legend with humorous anachronisms
• Alien From L.A. - very loosely inspired by Journey to the Center of the Earth
• Apocalypse Now – Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness set during the Vietnam War
• August Rush - loosely based on Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist
• Bangaru Papa - Silas Marner set in India
• Barb Wire (film) - Casablanca (film) with the three main characters' genders reversed, set in a post-apocalyptic future
• Beastly (film) - Charles Perrault's "Beauty and the Beast"
• Bedazzled and its remake - the Faust legend
• Big Business (1988 film) - A Comedy of Errors with gender reversal
• Black Knight (film) - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with an African American Star Wars fan as the protagonist, hence the racial pun on the common term black knight
• Black Swan (film) - self-referential reimagining of Swan Lake partly influenced by The Double and Perfect Blue
• Blacula - Dracula as an african-american.
• Bride and Prejudice – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, set in modern times, with the main locales in India
• Bridget Jones's Diary (film) and its sequels – tenuously based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
• Broken Lance - King Lear
• A Bug's Life - animal fable retelling of Seven Samurai which was based on true events of the 16th century
• The Castle of Cagliostro - the Arsene Lupin character, represented here by a supposed grandson
• Castle in the Sky - steampunk cartoon loosely based on the Laputa subplot from Gulliver's Travels
• A Cinderella Story – Cinderella in modern Los Angeles
• Carmen Jones – Carmen
• Clueless – Jane Austen's Emma as a California valley girl
• Cosi (film) - self-referential version of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte set in modern Melbourne, Australia
• Coriolanus – Shakespeare's tragedy set in modern times, using the original dialogue
• Crime and Punishment in Suburbia – Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment set in a suburban high school.
• Cruel Intentions – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' novel Les Liaisons dangereuses set in a New York City prep school.
• The Cutting Edge - Olympic figure skating movie with elements of The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing
• Deliver Us From Eva - loosely linked to The Taming of the Shrew
• Die, Mommie, Die! – based on the Greek tragedy Electra by Sophocles^[1][2]
• Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde - Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde but as an african-american
• Dr. Dolittle (film) and its sequels - Doctor John Dolittle, originally written as a white man who espoused the questionable racial views of British colonialism, is reimagined as a modern African-American. Virtually the only plot element in common with the traditional version of the character, is the Doctor's unusual ability to communicate with animals.
• Dollars Trilogy - Yojimbo relocated from 19th century Japan to the old west version of the Mexican border.
• Don Jon - Don Juan legends
• Don Juan DeMarco - Don Juan legends
• Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman - the Don Juan legend with gender reversal
• The Double (2013 film) - Modern adaption of The Double
• Dracula (1931 film) and Dracula's Daughter - The 19th century setting of Dracula was abandoned by Universal Pictures to save money, and plenty of then-cutting-edge automobiles appear in these two movies, as well as airplanes traveling across Europe in the second movie.
• Dracula 2000 – Bram Stoker's Dracula
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde – a parody of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, set in modern New York City.
• Easy A – a self-referential adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter set in a modern high school.
• Edward II (film) - Edward II (play) with Christopher Marlowe's text but an explicitly modern setting
• Edward Scissorhands - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein set in 1960s suburbia.
• Ella Enchanted - "Cinderella" set in a world full of mythological creatures, talking animals, and a bit of steampunk
• Ever After – Cinderella in Renaissance France
• The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Evil Dead (2013 film) - spoof, amalgamating H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon series and (in the third movie only) Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
• Eyes Wide Shut - movie set in 1990s New York, based on Dream Story, an Austrian novel from the 1920s
• The Fisher King (film) - loosely and self-referentially based on a tale from Arthurian legend
• Forbidden Planet – William Shakespeare's The Tempest set on the planet Altair IV in the 23rd century.
• Frankenhooker - Frankenstein
• Frankenstein (1931 film) - the 18th century setting of Frankenstein (novel) was abandoned by Universal Pictures to save money, and plenty of then-modern props appear throughout this film and its sequels
• Frankenweenie and its remake - Frankenstein
• Freaky Friday (1976 film) – Vice Versa but with their main characters' genders reversed.
• Freeway – Modernized Little Red Riding Hood with the pun referring to "'hood," a low-income urban neighborhood.
• From Prada to Nada – Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility set in modern Los Angeles.
• Frozen - inspired by Andersen's "The Snow Queen", set in a generic Scandinavian kingdom in the late 19th century
• G (2002 film) - The Great Gatsby with African-American main characters
• Get Over It - A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Ghosts of Girlfriends Past - A Christmas Carol. Although this story is frequently adapted to modern times, this adaptation is unusual for completely eliminating Christmas from the plot.
• Gnomeo and Juliet – a self-referential adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet wherein the main characters are enlivened statues in two adjacent garden displays in modern England
• A Good Woman (film) - Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan set in the 1930s
• Great Expectations (1998 film) – Charles Dickens' Great Expectations set in modern New York City
• The Great Mouse Detective - Sherlock Holmes as an animal fable
• Gremlins - Loosely inspired by Roald Dahl's children's book of the same name.
• Gulliver's Travels (2010 film) - Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. Instead of an 18th-century English doctor, Gulliver is now a 21st-century New York postal clerk who loves pop cultural fantasy and make believe; after getting lost among the Lilliputians he creates for them a religion based on himself by acting out the Star Wars movie saga which he tells them is the story of his own life.
• Hamlet (1996 movie) - Shakespeare's Hamlet set in Victorian times
• Hamlet (2000 movie) – William Shakespeare's Hamlet set in modern Manhattan
• Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters - Hansel and Gretel set in a quasi-steampunk world with clever anachronisms
• Happy, Texas - vaguely similar to "The Emperor's New Clothes" with two con men pretending to be great tailors
• Henry V (1989 film) - This adaptation of Henry V (play) cleaves to a medieval setting, except for a man called Chorus who wears a modern suit of clothes and regularly invades the scenery to make fourth wall-breaking speeches. A brief frame story at the very beginning and end of the film, shows Chorus living in a modern sound stage set.
• Hoi Polloi (1935 film) - Pygmalion with The Three Stooges taking the place of Eliza Doolittle
• Hollow Man (film) - H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man
• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids - The Incredible Shrinking Man
• Hook (film) - Peter Pan
• The Hours – self-referential adaptation of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• House of Strangers - King Lear, and possibly the Book of Genesis chapters 37-50.
• Ice Age: Continental Drift (fourth movie in Ice Age series) - Homer's Odyssey as an animal fable
• Igor - Mary W. Shelley's Frankenstein, spoofing previous film adaptations of the same novel
• The Incredible Shrinking Woman - The Incredible Shrinking Man but with its gender reversed, set in Modern Los Angeles.
• Independence Day (1996 film) - H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
• The Inglorious Bastards – Loose remake of The Dirty Dozen
• Journey to the Center of the Earth, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and a planned third film - Self-referential pastiches of Jules Verne novels, with a secret history as backstory.
• Jungle 2 Jungle – American version of Un indien dans la ville
• Just One of the Guys - Twelfth Night
• Kandukondain Kandukondain – Tamil adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility
• A Kid in King Arthur's Court - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
• King of California - loosely based on Don Quixote
• A Knight's Tale - loosely based on elements of The Canterbury Tales with humourous anachronisms included
• Last Man Standing - Red Harvest and/or Yojimbo
• Les Liaisons Dangereuses (film) - Les Liaisons Dangereuses set in 1959
• The Libertine - based on writings of scandalous poet Earl John Wilmot of Rochester. A frame story has the character of Wilmot breaking the fourth wall and making anachronistic references to terms and events post dating his own death.
• The Lion King – William Shakespeare's Hamlet as an animal fable
• Love at First Bite - Dracula (novel) set in 1970s New York
• Love's Labour's Lost (2000 film) - Love's Labours Lost set in 1939, with the characters singing popular 1930s songs
• The Magic Flute - based on an opera of the same name, film set in World War I
• The Magnificent Seven and its remake — The Seven Samurai relocated from medieval Japan to Mexico in the Old West.
• Maleficent (film) - The film is loosely based on Sleeping Beauty.
• The Manchurian Candidate and its remake - one subplot is a self-referential adaptation of the House of Atreus legend
• Mars Attacks! - H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
• The Mask and Son of the Mask - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde mashed up with Norse mythology
• Material Girls - Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility set in modern Los Angeles.
• Men of Respect – William Shakespeare's Macbeth recast as a Mafia power struggle in 1990
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film) – William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream set around 1900
• A Midsummer Night's Rave – William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream set in the rave scene
• Monsters vs. Aliens – paying homages to 50s sci-fi and horror movies
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Arthurian legend retold with humourous anachronisms
• Moulin Rouge! - mashup of La Boheme, La Traviata/The Lady of the Camellias, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and real life historical figures, set in 1899-1901 but with deliberate anachronisms included for humorous purposes
• The Muppet Christmas Carol - A Christmas Carol with humorous anachronisms and breaking the fourth wall
• Muppet Treasure Island - R.L. Stevenson's Treasure Island with humorous anachronisms and breaking the fourth wall
• The Musketeer - loosely based on The Three Musketeers with anachronistic martial arts scenes
• My Kingdom (film) - King Lear
• My Own Private Idaho – one of the movie's subplots is based on the Falstaff subplots from William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V; another alludes to George Eliot's Silas Marner
• The Nutty Professor and its remake - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• O (movie) – retelling of William Shakespeare's Othello in a private school
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Homer's Odyssey adapted to 1930s Mississippi
• Oliver & Company - Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist as an animal fable
• Orfeu - the Orpheus and Eurydice myth set in Brazil
• Out Cold - Casablanca as a stoner comedy.
• Penelope (2006 film) - "Beauty and the Beast" with genders reversed, or possibly "The Wife of Bath's Tale"
• Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge - The Phantom of the Opera
• The Phantom of the Opera (1962 film) - Despite the title, the film takes place in London instead of Paris.
• The Phantom of the Opera: The Motion Picture - The Phantom of the Opera
• Phantom of the Paradise - The Phantom of the Opera
• Pocahontas (1995 film) - The Pocahontas legend with humorous anachronisms
• Ponyo - "The Little Mermaid"
• Pretty Woman – Pygmalion with also a self-referential bit of the Cinderella story
• Rags – Cinderella – Gender Inverted, Set in New York
• Ran (1985 film) - King Lear relocated to medieval Japan
• Red Riding Hood - This take on the Little Red Riding Hood tale is set in a generic medieval country which seems to be in Europe but has African soldiers in its army. Certain modern attitudes seem to be popular in this generic medieval country, including a scene where two young girls at a village fair dance suggestively as if pretending to be lesbians.
• Rent (film) - the opera La Boheme
• Richard III (1995 film) - the play's original text, but with many subplots and characters cut, and set in the 1930s
• Robin Hood (1973 film) - animal fable retelling of the Robin hood legend.
• Robin Hood: Men in Tights - the Robin Hood legend with much deliberate anachronism and fourth wall breaking
• Romeo + Juliet – William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet adapted for modern Florida; used mostly the original dialogue
• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Hamlet. Set in Elizabethan times with some steampunk and fourth wall breaks.
• Roxanne – Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac
• Scotland, PA – William Shakespeare's Macbeth set in a fast food restaurant in Scotland, Pennsylvania
• Scrooged – Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol set in 1980s Manhattan.
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - self-referential spoof of the Rape of the Sabine Women legend from Plutarch's "Life of Romulus" from Parallel Lives, set in Oregon in 1850
• Shakespeare in Love - a self-referential pastiche and secret history which purports that William Shakespeare based certain plot elements of Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and other plays, on an experience in his own life
• She's All That – Pygmalion
• She's the Man – William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will re-located to modern suburbia
• Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon - Sherlock Holmes, a quintessentially Victorian character, is updated to World War II, aids the French Resistance, and foils Nazi acts of sabotage.
• Shrek (franchise) – mash-up and parody of fairy-tales with pop-culture references throughout.
• A Simple Twist of Fate – George Eliot's novel Silas Marner
• Sita Sings the Blues – Feminist retelling of the Indian epic Ramayana
• Spaceballs – spoofs Star Wars
• Spike – Cupid and Psyche, Hades and Persephone, Beauty and the Beast
• Star Wars – The Hidden Fortress relocated to space.
• Start the Revolution Without Me - spoofs A Tale of Two Cities, also The Corsican Brothers and The Man in the Iron Mask
• Suicide Squad – comic book version of The Dirty Dozen
• Sydney White – Snow White set in a modern university
• Tamara Drewe (film) - Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd
• Tangled – Disney animated film. Loosely based on Rapunzel with humorous anachronisms.
• Teenage Bonnie and Klepto Clyde - Bonnie and Clyde
• Tempest – William Shakespeare's The Tempest
• A Thousand Acres (film) - King Lear
• Three Men and a Baby and Three Men and a Little Lady – American version of Trois Hommes et un Couffin
• Throne of Blood - William Shakespeare's Macbeth relocated from medieval Scotland to medieval Japan
• Time After Time - self-referential adaptation of Wells' Time Machine combined with Jack the Ripper legends
• Time Bandits - derived from many sources including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Hobbit
• Titus - Titus Andronicus set in an ambiguous alternate history where the Roman Empire exists in the 20th century
• Trading Places - The Prince and the Pauper and Pygmalion (play)
• Treasure Planet - animated film of R.L. Stevenson's Treasure Island, set on other planets with much steampunk imagery
• Trishna – Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles
• The Triumph of Love - Marivaux's play set in his time but with brief interludes of steampunk and breaking the fourth wall
• Tromeo and Juliet – A modern, punk adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
• The Truth About Cats & Dogs – Cyrano de Bergerac^[3]
• Twelfth Night (1996 film) - a Shakespeare play set in the 19th century
• Van Helsing - steampunk adventure based on both the Dracula and Frankenstein archetypes
• Virgin Territory - spoof of Giovanni Bocaccio's Decameron with humorously anachronistic speech and custom
• Warm Bodies (film) – William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet where Romeo is a zombie
• Wes Craven's New Nightmare – This meta-film has elements from A Nightmare on Elm Street including catchphrases and the infamous opening sequence.
• Whatever It Takes – Cyrano de Bergerac
• What Maisie Knew (film) - Henry James novel
• Where the Heart Is (1990 film) - King Lear
• The Wiz - retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with the Kansas subplot relocated to 1970s Harlem
• Young Frankenstein - self-referential spoof of Mary W. Shelley's Frankenstein (primarily based on previous film adaptations of that novel) set in "Transylvania" which appears to be a fictitious nation with little connection to the real Transylvania

Television and TV-movies

• Beauty and the Beast series and its reboot - Charles Perrault's "Beauty and the Beast" by way of Batman
• Carmen: A Hip Hopera – Carmen
• Case Closed (manga) - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, set in modern Japan.
• Christmas Eve on Sesame Street - the Bert and Ernie subplot mirrors O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi"
• Cinderella (1997 film) – musical remake but with an african-american cast.
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (2002) - film, based on a novel, places Cinderella in Baroque Holland
• A Diva's Christmas Carol - A Christmas Carol
• Descendants (2015 film) - mash-up spoof of various fairy tales including Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty
• Don Quixote (2000 film) - This adaptation mostly keeps the original circa-1605 setting, but has one scene set in the late 19th century as a joke.
• Elementary (TV series) – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, set in modern New York City.
• Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas - O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi" as an animal fable
• Empire (2015 TV series) - A Hip-hop retelling of The Lion in Winter and William Shakespeare's King Lear
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its spinoff Xena: Warrior Princess - frequently humorous retellings of Greek mythology, primarily the Hercules stories as the title suggests, with many deliberate anachronisms in the dialogue and general views of the characters
• Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story - "Jack and the Beanstalk" by way of Rashomon and Young Frankenstein
• King of Texas - King Lear set in Texas in the early 1840s
• Kumkum Bhagya – Hindi TV serial adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility
• Lupin III - the Arsene Lupin character, represented here by a supposed grandson
• Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol - animated version of A Christmas Carol presented as a play-within-a-play
• The Mysterious Cities of Gold - loosely based on Scott O'Dell's The King's Fifth
• Motocrossed - Twelfth Night
• The Muppets' Wizard of Oz - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz set in modern times, with Dorothy and her family recast as African Americans, and many fourth wall breaks.
• Othello (2001 TV film) - Othello is a police commander in modern England
• Ouran High School Host Club – William Shakespeare's As You Like It
• Parenthood (2010 TV series) - loosely based on the 1989 film
• Phantom of the Megaplex - The Phantom of the Opera
• Revenge (TV series) - loosely based on Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo
• Rugrats - influenced by Look Who's Talking and Sugar and Spike
• Selfie (TV series) - loosely based on Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
• Sherlock (TV series) – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, now set in modern 2010's London with the main characters utilising modern technology such as the internet and smartphones. Dr. Watson is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan as part of Operation Herrick.
• The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow - Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" set in the world of the Smurfs
• Sons of Anarchy – influenced by Hamlet
• Ulysses 31 – loosely based on Homer's Odyssey
• Uncle Buck (2016 TV series) – Based on the 1989 film but this version has african-american main characters.
• Willa: An American Snow White (1998, PBS) - self-referential spoof set in Virginia in the early 20th century
• Wuthering High School (2015) - Wuthering Heights

Web series

• 221B - based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• A Bit Much - inspired by Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• The Autobiography of Jane Eyre - based on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Bright Summer Night - inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
• Carmilla - based on Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
• Dashwood Days - based on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Dashwood Diaries - based on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• East and West - based on North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Elinor and Marianne Take Barton - based on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Emma Approved – Jane Austen's Emma
• The Emma Project - Jane Austen's Emma
• Emma Wood - Jane Austen's Emma
• Frankenstein M. D. - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• From Mansfield With Love - Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• Further Adventures of Cupid and Eros - based on Greco-Roman mythology
• Green Gables Fables - based on Anne of Green Gables and Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery
• The Grey Tarmac Road - based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and associated works by L. Frank Baum
• Grimm Reflections - based on Grimm's Fairy Tales
• Hashtag Hamlet - based on Hamlet by William Shakespeare (forthcoming)
• In Earnest - based on The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
• The Adventures of Jamie Watson and Sherlock Holmes - based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Jo March Vlog - based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Jules and Monty - based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
• Kate the Cursed - based on The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
• The Lizzie Bennet Diaries – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
• Lil Women - based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Lovely Little Losers - based on Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare
• The March Family Letters - based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Mars and Elly - based on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• A Midsemester Night's Dream - based on A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
• The Misselthwaite Archives - based on The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Much Ado About A Webseries - based on Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy - based on Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
• Nick Carraway Chronicles - based on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Northbound - based on Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• Notes by Christine - based on The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
• Nothing Much to Do - based on Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• ProjectAOGG (working title) - based on Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (forthcoming)
• Project Green Gables - based on Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
• SHAKES - based on Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• Welcome to Sanditon - based on Sanditon by Jane Austen

Literature

• A True Novel by Minae Mizumura - Wuthering Heights set in mid-20th-century Japan
• Ana of California by Andi Teran - Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables
• Andy and the Lion - children's book by James Daugherty retelling "Androcles and the Lion" in a modern (1930s) setting
• Beauty and the Beast - 17th-century tale by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve is a retelling of the Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche
• Brazil (novel) by John Updike - Tristan and Isolde set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro
• "Born with the Dead" by Robert Silverberg – the myth of Orpheus relocated to near-future Zanzibar
• Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James - sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
• Dorian, an Imitation by Will Self – Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Eligible (novel) by Curtis Sittenfeld - Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice set in contemporary Cincinnati, Ohio
• Emma (novel) by Alexander McCall Smith - Jane Austen's Emma
• Fanny (novel) by Erica Jong - John Cleland's Fanny Hill
• Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman - Grimms' Fairy Tales
• Foe (novel) by J. M. Coetzee - Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - self-referential take on Dracula (novel)
• Joseph Andrews (novel) by Henry Fielding - Cervantes' Don Quixote
• Lady Macbeth's Daughter by Lisa Klein – William Shakespeare's Macbeth
• New Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms by Matthew Hodgart - sequel to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels
• Night's Daughter by Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Magic Flute
• Ophelia by Lisa Klein – William Shakespeare's Hamlet
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith - Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, with zombies.
• Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters - Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, with sea monsters
• The Sotweed Factor by John Barth - Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski – Hamlet, with dogs
• Tam Lin by Pamela Dean – Tam Lin relocated to a college in early 1970s Minnesota
• Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis - Cupid and Psyche
• Ulysses (novel) by James Joyce - The Odyssey reenacted in Dublin, Ireland on 16 June 1904
• A Midsummer Night's Steampunk by Scott E. Tarbet - William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a Steampunk retelling brought forward to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee

Theatre

• All Shook Up - Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
• The Bomb-itty of Errors - A Comedy of Errors as a hip-hop musical
• The Boys from Syracuse - Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) - humorous mash-up purporting to include at least one element of every play William Shakespeare wrote
• Damn Yankees – the Faust legend
• Godspell - the New Testament retold with deliberate anachronisms which serve both humorous and allegorical purposes
• I Love You Because - Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
• Into the Woods - musical mash-up of fairy-tales including those from The Brothers Grimm.
• Jesus Christ Superstar - the New Testament retold with deliberate anachronisms for both humor and allegory
• Kiss Me, Kate - self-referential adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew
• Mourning Becomes Electra - the House of Atreus story relocated to New England in 1865
• My Fair Lady – Pygmalion
• Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 - based on War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Republic - based on Henry IV by William Shakespeare
• The Rocky Horror Show - musical spoof of Frankenstein, primarily the 1931 film adaptation rather than the novel itself
• Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead - Hamlet retold from different perspectives, with minimal fourth wall breaking.
• Rent – La Boheme
• Spamalot — musical spoof of the Arthurian Legend, based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• Twist - Oliver Twist
• West Side Story – William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
• Young Frankenstein - musical spoof of Frankenstein, based on the 1931 and 1974 film versions rather than the novel itself

References

1. Jones, Kenneth; Lefkowitz, David (August 12, 1999). "Die! Mommy! Die! Slays 'Em in L.A., Busch Parody Extends to Sept. 26". Playbill. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
2. Hofler, Robert (July 22, 1999). "Review: Die! Mommy! Die!". Variety. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
3. "'The Truth About Cats & Dogs' (PG-13)". The Washington Post.