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http://foreo.blogspot.co.uk/ said: In a word - Greed and laziness (which is three words of course).

Remakes work when they aren't remakes - or re-imaginings or regurgitations. Whatever description they patronise us with).
The Thing worked in ''82 for example because it was another interpretation of the original story. Rather than a remake of the previous film. Both films and the original novella stand alone as classics of the genre (my own opinion is that Carpenter's film is very much more satisfying than not only Hawks' film but the novella too). The recent prequel doesn't deserve much of a mention - it was ok but rather pointless.
More recently we had the Hollywood 'remake' of the Swedish Let the Right One. Same as with The Thing, BOTH versions work because they are both reworkings of the original story (apart from a few touches the remakers took from the original film, that were not in the book, they are totally different films). And once again the three versions (book, first film and remake) all stand alone as classics. It's one better this time because we actually have three angles of the same story so that reading the book and seeing the films proves a more rewarding experience - enriching the story three-fold.
  
Somehow I don't think the (re)makers of Total Recall are going back to Philip K Dick's story