This article contains spoilers for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.Jack Nicholsoncemented his legacy as one of the greatest living actors with his performance in Miloš Forman’s 1975 drama,One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. That motion picture, chronicling the inhumanity of the mental health system, is currently scheduled to return,said producer Paul Zaentz this week.The producers of this upcoming project have their hands full, balancing the satire with the social message. As we’ll explain, the movie and book arguably don’t mean the same thing as they did in the ’70s, with the mental health reform movement a largely forgotten aspect of the larger Civil Rights Movement.
We contend that a straight remake of the film is neither necessary nor advisable, as it would be both redundant and ill-advised. How the hell do you top Nicholson in a role he was born for? That’s not to say that a series approaching the film with a different structure or more attention to the source material can’t work. The movie omits many details from the novel, which leaves future TV producers some wiggle room. This means they wouldn’t need to take drastic artistic license. Most of the backstory and conspiracy theories surrounding the Chief Bromden (Will Sampson) character were omitted from the 1975 movie for the sake of brevity, which also removed his narration from the book. However, adapting the film or book poses several surprising obstacles. Unlike most remakes, this might be too niche and too ancient to have the coveted built-in audience.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Black Comedy That Ruined the Reputation of the Psychiatric Community
In theOscar-winning film, the Oregon hospital warehouses those deemed “mentally ill,” informed consent a fantasy. Those patients who cannot be shamed or intimidated are punitively zapped or lobotomized to keep them from being a nuisance to the staff. The running gag in the film is that the protagonist, McMurphy, escapes prison for his crimes, only to face a different ordeal in an asylum that doesn’t tolerate individualism. According to Dr. Steve Taylor,writing forPsychology Today, these treatments were often less about improving the quality of life for those being treated than for convenience for hospital personnel, rendering patients' minds as sterile and featureless as the hospital’s stark, whitewashed walls and uniforms:
“The procedure was extremely dangerous—some patients died, others became brain-damaged or committed suicide. A ‘successful’ outcome meant that a patient who had previously been mentally unstable was now docile and emotionally numb, less responsive, and less self-aware. Even if there appeared to be some improvement in their mental ‘disorder,’ this was often outweighed by cognitive and emotional impairments.”
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And before medical professionals chime in, yes, electroshock or electroconvulsive therapy is still in use today, though administered in a far more responsible and controlled manner. Therefore, it should come as no surprise thatNurse Ratched (played by the late Louise Fletcher) was voted the fifth most memorable villain in film history by the American Film Institute, outranking Amon Goeth fromSchindler’s Listand Freddy Krueger.Great fodder for a remake, right? That’s where it gets messy.
The Precedent Is There, but Is the Audience?
Forman’s film is a masterpiece and still works as a character study, so there’s hope the drama might translate. Just look atMASH.Fargo, adapting the 1996 Coen Brothers' movie of the same name, also won viewers. For a more recent example of a ’70s-era film that transitioned to the small screen, look to the HBO seriesWestworld, which was expertly adapted to the television medium — well, maybe not the last few seasons, but you get the picture.
This can work if the plot doesn’t jump the shark. Before you ask the inevitable question about pandering to fans, fan service probably doesn’t factor in heavily, as so few viewers would have any familiarity with either the movie or the book, as much as it pains us to admit it.In 2025, the film lacks the resonance it once had, and we doubt any Zoomers have a clue who Randle McMurphy, Nurse Ratched, or Billy Bibbit are. Nor could they possibly graspthis gag fromThe Simpsons.
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A POV swap might do some good,focusing on the story of the Native American characterChief Bromden — an idea our Kyler Knight floated a couple of years back. Coincidentally, it’s not the first TV series to mine the plot for material. Netflix debuted a prequel show calledRatchedin 2020. The Ryan Murphy series quietly vanished after only eight episodes, indicating that the IP wasn’t particularly recognizable, despite the perfect casting of Sarah Paulson as the titular nurse with a god complex.
Is ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ Still Relevant?
Aside from viewership, there’s the technical aspect of subject matter. Ken Kesey’s novel poses questions for new generations of filmmakers and TV showrunners, exploring awkward topics like mental illness stigma and abuse of patients by medical staff (and vice versa). The provocative book was published in 1962, before sweeping reforms, and ironically, before many mentally ill patients were released and wound up on the streets.
Asmental health expert Dominic Sisti told NPRin 2017, “Much of our mental health care now for individuals with serious mental illness has been shifted to correctional facilities.” The book was already arguably outdated by the time the film arrived in theaters in 1975; physical “ice-pick” styled lobotomies had been phased out by 1968 (except in Scandinavia, go figure). By 1975, it was replaced by powerful drugs like Thorazine, aka the “chemical lobotomy,” which inaugurated the age of mass medication, another topic for another movie.
Kesey, who died in 2001, lived to see his book revolutionize the psychiatric industry, depopulating asylums. TV producers have one more option, but it’s not a good one.Any attempt to adapt this and set it in our modern time, after deinstitutionalization, would nullify the plot. A modern-dayOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nestwould have to be set in a prison, not a hospital.Much likeThe Great Gatsby, theCuckoobooks, plays, and films reflect a very specific period in 20th-century culture.One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nestis available to rent onApple TVandPrime Video.
