Why do modern actors and directors love classics?

While I agree that some classics (think "Importance of Being Ernest") have been done to death, can anyone out there say they don't like the play? I love it; classic or not, done to death or not. Some classics are done over and over because they are bloody good texts. There's a reason they are classics, they've paid their dues and emerged from their time frames and contexts as better than anything else that was written at the time. And now we examine them on a different level, as period peices.

New does not necessarily mean better. Given a choice between a cinema playing "Casablanca" and one playing Rob Schnieder's "The Animal", am I wrong to support a 50+ year old film?

(Throwing Down Guntlet); Tell me, what has come out of the last few years, or even that last decade that is better as a text than "Death of a Salesman", "Hamlet" or even "Don's Party" (gratuitus plug)? Go on, I dare ya.