Reboot, remake, remodel, reinvent, reimagine -- call it what you want.
European screen successes in new US clothes, or other Euro country guises, are having a revival. What gets remade? Comedies mostly, and a few thrillers. In the first case, perhaps to adapt linguistic and cultural humour while keeping engaging and transcendental tropes (high school life, romance, aging). In the second ... not sure.
Why remakes? Are movie goers objecting to foreign language subtitles that much, or is there a deeper reluctance to engage with the specifics of other cultures?
Germans have tried their hand at remakes the other way around, lastly Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck missing the mark with THE TOURIST in 2010, a remake of the French thriller with Sophie Marceau. It might be safer, like Michael Hanecke, to remake yourself, see 2x FUNNY GAMES.
The soon most remade German film star is indisputably Til Schweiger (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS). Often criticized for his mainstream blockbusters but all around and effusively lauded for
HEAD FULL OF HONEY, which we are showing as the German selection at this year’s EUFF Toronto--, 30 million German cinema goers so far loved this latest Schweiger hit. And
Schweiger will co-produce a US remake of HEAD FULL OF HONEY -- produced by and
starring Michael Douglas in the role originally taken by Dieter Hallervorden as a senile grandpa. Schweiger wants Matt Damon to take his role of overstrained son. German gossip mags have mentioned Toronto and New York as locations, for a 2017 release. Ambitious, but then the original made U$60m at the box office.
Long
rumoured for a remake is another Schweiger box office hit, KOKOWÄÄH --they will have to change the title, a deliberately erroneous reading of coq au vin--, allegedly to
star and be directed by Bradley Cooper, while co-produced by smart businessman Schweiger.
NO MANCHES FRIDA is the Mexican-American answer to the huge German high school comedy success FACK JU GÖHTE. Spanish director Nacho G. Velilla (PERDIENDO EL NORTE) cast Mexican comedian Omar Chaparro to take over Elyas M'Barek’s original lead role, thus Turkish-German Zeki becomes Zequi. Also starring Martha Higareda, Adal Ramones and Fernanda Castillo. It’s just out, so catch it and tell me whether you’re laughing for 100 minutes as I did throughout the original FACK JU GÖHTE. Certainly, NO MANCHES FRIDA has already won the Mexican box office on its first weekend with record sales.
Original German producer and here co-producer Constantin are also working on an Italian remake.
Variety reported earlier this year that the
popular German Hitler comedy LOOK WHO'S BACK is set for an Italian remake, reimagining Mussolini’s return.
Again, this is a Constantin production, the company set to be king of the reuse & recycle game. In the original political satire, director David Wnendt had
Hitler wake up in today’s Berlin and end up getting a TV show, in a GOOD BYE, LENIN!-style time-lapse/amnesia story.
“While postwar Italy has perhaps not been as willing as Germany to confront its totalitarian past – and therefore to therapeutically laugh at it as well – there is grist for the mill substituting Mussolini for Hitler in adapting this ingeniously constructed tale, especially given the more recent rise of Silvio Berlusconi for whom TV has been so key,” assessed Variety. Already, Timur Vermes’ book the film is based on has worked miracles internationally with translations into 41 languages. Watch the film on Netflix.
Switching genres, atmospheric German thriller
WE MONSTERS (at TIFF15) will at some point be rewritten by Emmy-nominated THE KILLING creator Veena Sud, who is first working on a Hitchcock remake/rewrite called SUSPICION, though.
“Sebastian Ko’s riveting thriller had us on the edge of our seats, but the story's brilliant focus on familial dynamics and themes of guilt, anguish and betrayal are what drew us in even deeper,” said remake producer Daniel Hammond as quoted in THR.
THE ROBBER will be director J.C. Chandor’s remake of Benjamin Heisenberg’s 2010 Berlinale competition film DER RÄUBER. The original film follows an elite marathon runner who uses races as a cover to rob banks.
"Growing the scope and scale of Benjamin's extremely original film into a kinetic, elevated action-thriller is exciting for us. We'll be using the film, the novella, and the true story it's based on to make a smart, fast-paced, and extremely entertaining movie," said producer Neil Dodson as quoted in a Filmnation announcement.
Remember DAS BOOT, the 1981 German (anti-)war epic –-often billed as the most successful German movie of all time-- that did for U-boats what PSYCHO did for showers (you never want to be in one)? Based on several books by Lothar-Günther Buchheim as well as Wolfgang Petersen’s original Oscar-nominated classic, German pay TV channel Sky has ordered an 8-part reboot (pun intended), planned as a sequel that will show the German soldiers’ disenchantment with the ever increasing bestiality of the last war years as well as incorporating the perspective of the French and Allied resistance. Christian Franckenstein of producer Bavaria Film puts the project in a larger current perspective: "
To tell an anti-war story is more important than ever, with war and terror omnipresent. The misguidance of young men through false ideologies is evident with every terror attack. The 1981 ‘Das Boot‘ is unique and we will take great care to respect that. Our aim is to build on its success and to continue the story with contemporary relevance.“ THR revealed the Brit Tony Saint (BBC drama MARGARET THATCHER) and German Johannes W. Betz (THE TUNNEL) as co-writers.
To be released in Germany, Austria, Italy, UK and Ireland in 2018, after Sky airs Tom Tykwer's crime show BABYLON BERLIN next year. Clear your calendars for some small screen marathons.
And yet more news from
Wolfgang Petersen, the German Hollywood director with an astounding 15 Oscar nominations, and back to comedies. He has just finished remaking his own 1976 TV comedy VIER GEGEN DIE BANK (Four against the bank), a sort of
German “Ocean’s Four.” The new cast includes TV stars Jan Josef Liefers and Alexandra Maria Lara, und the
royal trifecta of German comedy, Michael Bully Herbig, Matthias Schweighöfer and – Til Schweiger. It shot last winter in Berlin, post-produced in L.A. and is planned to be out this Christmas. One German newspaper reported he had to make do with a twentieth of his TROY budget –-still decent for a German production--, but was happy to return home to Berlin.
by
@JuttaBrendemuhl
