I’ve already expressed my anticipation for the upcoming horror film The Orphanage, produced by Guillermo Del Toro, but this is news about the film that I scarcely would’ve believed. It’s already up for being remade, and the film isn’t even out yet! If you don’t believe me, it was reported on comingsoon.net and you can read the article here.
I truly find this nothing short of staggering. Remakes are nothing new, that’s a given, and the American film industry today takes in a lot of profits from remakes, but this is just something entirely different. We’re used to seeing successful Asian films being cynically rehashed by the industry after a couple of years, or many favourites from yesteryear being butchered, but I don’t think we’ve seen a remake of a film that’s not even out yet being lined up. I’ve even read that it’s looking for a 2008 release! I’d take that information with a pinch of salt, but it’s not unprecedented for Hollywood to rush out a film.
One thing that I find slightly disturbing is that while a US release date for the original is penned for December 2007, according to imdb.com it is a limited release. Now, it’s not unheard of for production companies to buy the DVD rights for foreign films they’re in the process of remaking. Miramax, under Harvey Weinstein was notorious for buying the rights to some films for the sole purpose of keeping them off the market. Now I don’t know just how limited a ‘limited’ release is according to imdb, but the idea of American companies holding back the release of a film and pushing their own version instead is indeed disturbing, and could possibly set a worrying trend.
I have to make it clear that the last point is only speculation on my part, but while people are seriously irritated by a lot of remakes overshadowing the originals commercially, even when they’ve still seen or own the originals, how much more frustrating would it be if you’ve got no choice but to see the American version, and any other version is denied to you? Worrying indeed.
Source: moviesfilmsandmotionpictures.blogspot.com
