A remake of Papillon - is it a good idea?

I've been meaning to post about this for a while, still better late than never.

A Spanish production company plan to remake the 1973 film Papillon which starred Steve McQueen as a man wrongly imprisoned for murder. The original, an adaptation of the allegedly autobiographical novel by Henri Charrière, is viewed by many as a classic, mostly because of the wonderful rapport between McQueen and his co-star Dustin Hoffman.

Having read the book and seen the original film, I'm not sure if a remake is necessary. It would be good for the story to be brought to a new audience because, true or not, it is an amazing adventure. However, I'm not sure that it would be possible to find anyone who could fill the shoes of either McQueen or Hoffman. And, of course, any actor who does step up is bound to find himself being compared, possibly unfavourably. Having said that, I think if anyone could do justice to the role of Charriere it could be George Clooney, but I don't have a clue who could play Dega.

You can read more about the Papillon remake here and here. And if you have any thoughts you would like to share, why not leave a note in the comments.