Hollywood can’t seem to resist the urge to recreate famous productions in their own way that already have an acceptable audience or to make remakes of other productions considered cult despite the fact that, more often than not, they don’t do them justice and they don’t appeal to audiences.
The latest project is the remake of the thriller series Squid Game, a South Korean production launched on Netflix that is already preparing its second season after the success it achieved with its first nine episodes, which premiered in 2021.
The persistent questions among viewers and fans of audiovisual entertainment when Hollywood makes these types of moves are: was there really a need to make an American remake of an international production? Why can’t the self-proclaimed “mecca of film and television” respect the success of others?
The worst part is that examples of these types of projects and their great failures abound in the history of audiovisual media, and it seems that Hollywood has no memory in this regard because it continues to insist on copying the successes of other countries, even when certain stories simply won’t resonate with audiences. Let’s look at some of them:
Ghost In the Shell
The casting of this film was a disaster and highly criticized for years because, based on a Japanese work that had already been adapted into films and animated series, why cast an American star like Scarlett Johansson instead of someone of Japanese descent? And the production as a whole did not please the public, resulting in a box office flop (it only grossed $167 million worldwide against a budget of $110 million) and poor ratings on media outlets like Rotten Tomatoes.
Dragon Ball Evolution
This film is undoubtedly considered Hollywood’s biggest failure in attempting to bring a Japanese story to the big screen in every way: it had an almost entirely American cast, a very poor story, unconvincing visual effects, and simply failed to connect with international fans of this anime. And at the box office, it did even worse: it grossed nearly $57 million from a production cost of $30 million.
Let Me In
The Swedish version of this story (the country where the book on which it was based also comes from) is a wonderful film highly praised by all fans of horror and fantasy movies, but its “gringo” remake failed to connect with audiences simply because the story did not work in an environment different from that of Sweden. In addition, although its stars have proven to be great actors thanks to subsequent productions, in this version of the story, they failed to engage with their characters or the target audience.
Martyrs
The French version of this horror film left a strong impression on the minds of many fans, portraying a very raw story about experimentation on women at the physical and psychological level, but its American version simply remained a simplistic genre story that, according to critics and the public, didn’t hold a candle to the original. In addition, the story was significantly diversified to be less graphic, a decision that was criticized because the gore of this story is precisely what made it so visceral.
Death Note
The world had high hopes for this project when Warner Bros. announced it years ago, as the Japanese version of the production company had already made some live-action adaptations of this manga that were quite positive among the public. However, when its rights passed into Netflix’s hands, things went very wrong, especially because its plot did not follow the manga’s story, its characters did not even respect the essence of those they were inspired by, and although they had Willem Dafoe in the cast, his grotesque version of a shinigami was more laughable than terrifying.
Well, it’s not that all American remakes of foreign productions are bad; there are several of them that have also been acclaimed by critics.
However, when their rights passed into the hands of Netflix, things went very wrong, especially because the plot does not follow the manga’s story, and the characters did not even respect the essence of those they were inspired by. And although they had Willem Dafoe in the cast, his grotesque version of a shinigami was more laughable than scary.
And well, it’s not that all American remakes of foreign productions are bad; there are several of them that have also been acclaimed by critics because they knew how to respect the original story very well and gave small twists that did not ruin the plot but rather improved it, such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and CODA: Heart Signs.
However, it seems that these decisions by Hollywood are only a reflection of the lack of creativity of producers and creative people to launch new and fresh content that can reach audiences beyond North America, and that is why they see the need to rely on the success of others to get a few views.
Unfortunately, Squid Game is just one of the many projects from other countries that Hollywood has in the works for remakes, among which are also some national productions that no one really asked to be remade. Here is a list of the most talked-about ones:
- Saint Seiya
- One Piece
- Your Name
- Akira
- Parasite
- Death Note
- Battle Royale
- Train to Busan
As for American or English-speaking projects that will also get a remake according to recent announcements, these are the most popular ones:
- Masters of the Universe
- Legally Blonde
- Lord of the Rings
- Harry Potter
- Robocop
- Red Sonja
- Clue
Story originally written in Spanish by Alejandro Vizzuet in Cultura Colectiva.