Let the right one... in
At the recommendation of a list buried somewhere on the pages of Suicide Girls.com, I recently watched the Swedish film "Let the Right One In". Fantastic. Amazing. There were a few moments where I said "HOLY SHIT" loud enough for my neighbors across the hall to hear.
Admittedly, that's no impressive feat because you can hear a good deal across that four feet of space.
And it brings me to my main point, which is American cinemas need to appropriate and re-make every single foreign film that rates somewhat decently. I don't get Hollywood really, but if you have enough money to fund a god-awful remake of a grand film, then surely you can take the ego hit and actually force major distribution of the original film. Actually, that seems easier, doesn't it? Less labor intensive, really. Sure, you'll probably have to suffer a bunch of douchebags scratching their heads, but you can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs, right? What about all the people that would actually LIKE the original and don't have the means to see it.
I'm just saying... why re-invent the wheel? I've seen enough crappy jacked up American flicks. The remake of Shutter cost $8M to make, and returned $25M domestically.: three times the original investment. Do I think the Thai version could have done just as well in the U.S.? If you bought it for $2M, you would only have to make $6M to get the same rate of return. Granted, it's less money, but you also free up resources for other projects while keeping Joshua Jackson out of work.
I'm sure if some executive read this, they would say "what does he know, he doesn't understand, the business is complicated", but in all honestly, business is not that complicated when it comes down to bare numbers. To boot, the original Shutter was an amazing film.
P.S. Anyone that wants to argue for the Departed, I would say this: it is the exception that proves the rule.
At the recommendation of a list buried somewhere on the pages of Suicide Girls.com, I recently watched the Swedish film "Let the Right One In". Fantastic. Amazing. There were a few moments where I said "HOLY SHIT" loud enough for my neighbors across the hall to hear.
Admittedly, that's no impressive feat because you can hear a good deal across that four feet of space.
And it brings me to my main point, which is American cinemas need to appropriate and re-make every single foreign film that rates somewhat decently. I don't get Hollywood really, but if you have enough money to fund a god-awful remake of a grand film, then surely you can take the ego hit and actually force major distribution of the original film. Actually, that seems easier, doesn't it? Less labor intensive, really. Sure, you'll probably have to suffer a bunch of douchebags scratching their heads, but you can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs, right? What about all the people that would actually LIKE the original and don't have the means to see it.
I'm just saying... why re-invent the wheel? I've seen enough crappy jacked up American flicks. The remake of Shutter cost $8M to make, and returned $25M domestically.: three times the original investment. Do I think the Thai version could have done just as well in the U.S.? If you bought it for $2M, you would only have to make $6M to get the same rate of return. Granted, it's less money, but you also free up resources for other projects while keeping Joshua Jackson out of work.
I'm sure if some executive read this, they would say "what does he know, he doesn't understand, the business is complicated", but in all honestly, business is not that complicated when it comes down to bare numbers. To boot, the original Shutter was an amazing film.
P.S. Anyone that wants to argue for the Departed, I would say this: it is the exception that proves the rule.