American Remakes of European Films

[gim73]

Getting a remake from another country is nice every once and a while. It sure beats getting reboots of old shows. seriously, do we need to reboot every horror franchise from the 80's?

And I went to the movies the other day and found out they were doing a remake of total recall. First they kill Conan the barbarian, and now they are going for total recall? If we are just going to get reboots of old Arnold movies, can I get a Running Man reboot?

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Hell... What about a re-working of Hot Fuzz or Spaced! The title 'Hot Fuzz' wouldn't even work in the US... and the whole idea of a shootout in a bumpkin village is just normality in Texas isn't it?

Actually from what I saw, Hot Fuzz isn't in qualification for an "American" remake, considering that it got released everywhere in America and I think it did pretty well. I live in the Midwest of the US and I saw it, at the tail end of its running in theaters, and loved it. Though, I wasn't able to judge theater goer reactions, since it was so far at the end of its running/tour that I and my brother were the only ones in the theater room watching it.

It wasn't like the niche European movies being remade like people are bringing up. Hot Fuzz had an extensive and long running television ad campaign in the US, so everybody that watched any television knew it was in theaters.

These other movies people are mentioning, are movies that didn't make it to US theaters, or if they did, they didn't have any kind of television ad campaign. Really, I would say that 75% or more of the US wouldn't know of a new movie's existence if it wasn't given a wide spread and long TV ad campaign.

I mean how can people like me, in the US, know of a film's existence if it isn't shown in the area or advertised properly. So, that is why when successful or niche foreign films are remade in the US, a vast majority of people don't know they are remakes or know if said remakes are getting things right from the originals.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

it does annoys me, because it feels like the Americans don't even bother with stuff from Europe or else. so they get a remake from their land and suddenly it is watchable? so the original creators are not getting the credit at all.

How can we bother with stuff from Europe if we don't know it exists?

The vast majority of Americans get their movie knowledge of what has been released, when, and where, from American television, news, and magazines.

As I said in another comment above:

These other movies people are mentioning, are movies that didn't make it to US theaters, or if they did, they didn't have any kind of television ad campaign. Really, I would say that 75% or more of the US wouldn't know of a new movie's existence if it wasn't given a wide spread and long TV ad campaign.

Foreign films get little to no publicity in the US, unless they make it to the foreign film section of the Oscars award show.

Also, Americans are lazy and don't like reading subtitles.

Really, there is nothing lazy about it. Subtitles really aren't a viable option for most people. It is hard to focus on a movie while I'm reading lines at the bottom. Besides, I have yet to find a movie or show that has subtitles that stay up long enough for everything to be read.

It takes longer than three seconds to read a couple sentences of dialogue.

It is the reason all anime that I actually like and watch are ones that have dubbed versions. If I'm reading subtitles, I can't give 100% attention to what is happening on the screen. In most cases, I would have to go through the first time reading the subs, then watch again while only watching the people moving on the screen. It is a big waste of time.

Movies and television are just as much a visual media as they are verbal media, really more so on the visual, so, subtitles heavily detract from the experience.

 

[darlarosa]

This sounds stupid to most people but there are reasons.

Besides money there is often a belief that certain things are more palatable to certain cultural audiences. For instance take the "Let Me In" remake. In the original the vampire is not a little girl, but is revealed to be a castrated little boy who was turned as he is in the book. Despite all of the gore, that was considered not palatable to factions of the American audience. It sounds silly to most people, and a lot of people dismiss it. However, by taking a movie most people would never see in the first place, altering it for cultural perspectives, and releasing it a lot of money is made. Occasionally this has it's place because there are often cultural references or themes that are not understood in certain cultures. If you took certain themes common to Chinese narrative they would simply not be understood by a large portion of the western audience. The average person is simply not aware of those themes, doesn't have time to understand them, and going to the movies if often a luxury most people reserve for some films.

 

[Dryk]

I read somewhere that the producer said that similarity to Sherlock would be "Worrying".
Which is basically press release talk for "WE'RE FUCKING WATCHING YOU."

Well considering that they approached the BBC for remaking rights, the BBC told them to get lost and so they made a just-different-enough version... yeah the BBC are going to watch them like a hawk.

Also Life on Mars, Being Human grr hiss

 

[Lethos]

thats why whe have this shameless copies:

infernal affairs (2002) vs the Departed (2006) (its a 1:1 copy with american actors)[/QUOTE]
The Departed is one of my favorite films :(

I been meaning to film it's based on. Are they really that similar?

 

[Joshey Woshey]

Well in some cases the Americans don't like to acknowledge other countries for anything positive, so it would make sense to redo the film so the Americans are the heroes.

U-571 is one of the most disgraceful and disrespectful American films ever made. Not a remake, but still reeks of American filth. Not hating on Americans, just stating reality.

I read somewhere that at one point some Americans were going to make a film about the Battle Of Britain but with American protagonists. Yeah. One of the most important battles in British history would be won by Americans and the American public would believe it.

The Great Escape isn't exactly a remake but in real life it did happen. Except they weren't Americans. I can forgive Steve Mcqueen though.

 

[Aurgelmir]

This happens every where.

Tee other day I saw that they were showing "The Wave" on TV, I got all excited thinking it was the old american version of the movie... nope a 2008 German remake. Didn't bother watching it though, but it seems it was exactly the same movie in German.

That said I think remakes of movies that didn't do well outside its home country is fair... it's like a different artist getting a hit with a cover song imo.

But Troll Hunter, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo etc became big on the internationla market... and I don't feel a remake is in order. (Although the american Dragon Tattoo is apparently better).

Another good example is "The Ring" and "The Grudge" from Japan.
Heck "The Grudge" was just the Japanese movie with Sarah Michelle Gellar, the rest of the cast was the original cast and director

 

[Bassik]

Hey, anyone ever saw Red Dwarf? It's a British sitcom IN SPACE, featuring the last living human, a holographic projection of a dead human (Who was a total smeghead), a human-like descendant from cats (He is very cool, as is to be expected), a gay robot, and a computer with an IQ of 6000, but he's gotten a bit peculiar in the head after 3 million years of solitude.

It was funny, witty, some of the best jokes on television came from this show. I think even Futurama owes a lot to it.

Then the Americans got their hands on it... it was very lame, they tried to copy the show, but without the funny characters.

I mean, really, is British culture so alien to Americans that they have to make their own versions of Brit-coms? Are the accents that hard to understand?

I don't know, maybe the original show didn't have enough violence in it or something.