Movie remake madness

What is wrong with the movie industry? The amount of remakes of recent movies is gaining pace, but why? Have the writers dried up? Is the drive for money so great that only tried and tested formula will gain any financial backing?  OK, so there are a great deal of original films out there but the number of remakes has increased drastically over the past yew of years.

There seems to be three main types of remake, the remake of a real classic in an, often unsuccessful attempt to put a new spin on it, for that read Americanise a classic idea. There are many examples here;

The Wicker Man - a bloody awful and forgettable attempt to con temporise a truly great film
The Girl with the Dragon tattoo - not seen it yet but a big budget remake of a foreign classic
The Lord of the Rings - Effects and cash made it possible to do these books justice at last

I guess that these type of remakes are always going to happen, either when a new generation presents itself or technology and money give a better chance of a better big screen interpretation of a great story. There are many, many more examples of this and it is not a new concept. What is new however is passing off a remake as a prequel or a sequel but is really the same film remade.

The Bourne Legacy is the first one to leap to mind. On the surface a continuation of the Bourne series of films but really just a rehash of the first Bourne film.
The Amazing Spider Man, OK this has a different plot and bad guy to the original but the back story is the same. The portrayal of Spiderman was more in line with the comic books and for me better.
The Incredible Hulk is another Marvel film which sort of takes over from the last one but seems to present itself as an apology for Ang Lees version.
The Thing was an embarrassing excuse for a prequel which started off on the right lines but ended up pretty much regurgitating the first plot.

Then are the films that don't seem to know where the hell they are, the almost franchises I suppose.

X-men films, another Marvel (pardon the irony) series churn out their media with little regard for continuity or story, still pretty good though.
Batman. What the hell is going there? At least the recent trilogy makes no bones about the previous travesties.

The other thought that occurs is that decent films of the past that may have attracted a 15 or even an 18 certificate are being remade with the lucrative 12A certificate.

The remake, or new film passing off as a not really pre/sequel , that I am really looking forward to is the  upcoming Judge Dredd. The original was so shocking it's not worth recounting but the new one looks like they have thought about the existing, and sadly, ageing fan base. We'll see.

But for heavens sake can we have some new ideas and subsequent movies please. I mean there are some potentially fantastic potential seeds of films out there, I have a few good ones. Not least of these is Mister Benn (not Bean) the movie. A real action hero. I think I will even have a go at writing a screen play, you never know.