Eh...I'm kinda 50/50 on this. Some of them I think it wouldn't hurt to be updated necessarily, while others I think should be taken back to their eras.
For example, there've already been two attempts at a "present-day" live-action Flash Gordon - the 1980 film and the SciFi series - so I'd like to see somebody take a crack at taking him back to the 1930s with today's FX and makeup. Same with the Green Hornet - the Van Williams series and the Seth Rogen film were both contemporary, so the next effort someone makes at the story I'd like to see also back in its original time period (of course, with this "shared universe" kick everybody in Hollywood's on now I'd also like to see them weave his origin back to the Lone Ranger as he originally was - Britt Reid as created was John Reid's grandnephew - but that's neither here nor there).
By comparison, I think a modern-day Rocketeer movie could work if the studio could avoid the usual "creative" impulse to put their hero in yet another suit of armor - just have Cliff Secord's grandson or great-grandson discover the old helmet and jet-pack stashed somewhere and end up having to use them to ward off some kind of menace. And having a descendant of Diego de la Vega running around modern-day Los Angeles at night busting up heavily-armed drug gangs with only a sword and the hellish level of skill it would take to use it that well could make for a decent vigilante action-adventure with a fair amount of built-in humor, too, without resorting to goofy crap like, say, setting it in the future to make it
KEWLLLL!!!
Of course, there's also some I think should stay in their original eras, but should be given a different stylistic approach, too. I'd still like to see a new Dick Tracy movie that isn't as flashy and colorful and over-the-top comic-strippy as Warren Beatty's and is more hard-boiled, crime-drama detective-storyish like the Tracy movies that Morgan Conway and Ralph Byrd made back in the '40s. You could still have the classic Tracy Rogues' Gallery in there, just don't try to do the same kind of straight-from-the-comics look with the makeup, otherwise it's not gonna work: Flattop doesn't actually need a legitimately flat head - just give him a buzz cut; nor does Pruneface need to look like an actual prune - just give him a stipple-and-stretch.
So I'm actually sort of 33.3/33.3/33.3 on the subject. Yeah, I know the math is off, that was never my strong suit.
