Hollywood Hits the Sassy Girl Bank Again. 데이지 (Daisy) Remake?

Damn remaking Hollywood producers. For all I care they can BURN... their hands. On the oven. Really bad. So bad that they have to stay home for a few months to recover. And maybe in that time, since they can't do much, they'll finally decide to actually watch the films they're buying and remaking, which makes them finally come to the obvious realization: "Hey, these are pretty good. Maybe it would be better to just play the ORIGINAL movies in theaters."

*sigh*

They could at least give Jeon a Hollywood debut ... probably not.

[quote Geert Jan]: "Maybe it would be better to just play the ORIGINAL movies in theaters"
As much as I love Jeon Ji-Hyun, I seriously doubt that the original version of Il Mare would generate much money at the US box office. This isn't the Field Of Dreams, where you'll build it and they will come. Korean movies first have to prove that they have some draw in the mainstream before companies will be willing to financially risk releasing them here. I think that Lady Vengeance and Shadowless Sword may be the largest tests yet to see if there is any money to be made from releasing Korean language films in US cinemas.

I hope those two movies do well, since they look quite interesting. I plan on seeing them if the play locally.

Heh, yeah I guess you're right. It's easy blaming the producers for making these remakes, but the reason they can make millions from a remake and hardly anything from the original is because of what the audience wants. It's more of a cultural matter. Foreign things are just hard to accept for most people. It's no coincidence that the word "foreign" can mean both "located away from one's native country" and "not natural". So actually it's only logical for the producers to do a remake instead of trying to release the original.

Still, they could try and show some respect to these originals. For example by actually watching them. And by giving people a choice of watching the original by giving it a simultanious (limited) release with the remake. Maybe try to warm up audiences a bit to foreign cinema and show them that not all foreign films are boring arthouse films, but there are fun, entertaining foreign blockbusters too.

Also, I think in Europe these films would stand a better chance than in the US. We're a bit hung up on Hollywood here, but still, I think we might be a bit more trained in looking beyond borders. I don't know about all Europeans, but all this "proud to be an American" and talk about "our great nation" can really give the impression of America isolating itself culturally. I guess what I'm trying to say is it would be nice to see if European distributors wouldn't just blindly look to America to see what kind of movies make money there, but maybe try to differentiate a little by bringing a more diverse selection of movies.

I guess they do try sometimes. But there's also the problem that people are scared by unpredictable movies, and that intelligent movies make people feel stupid. So I guess it's just best if things stay the way they are. Ok, never mind, I need some sleep.

There will be two version of the original Daisy. An asian version and an international version.

BTW, the Thai release date is 30th March.

A scary thought, looks like the original Daisy will not be shown in Dutch theatres (the country where it was actually shot) and the US remake probaply will....
What makes it even more sad is that at least a third of the crew IS Dutch. So this "Korean" movie could just as well be called a "Dutch" production or a "Hong Kong" production.

I do not agree with my dear countryman Geert Jan that the western movie going audience will not accept the original motion picture and rather would spent a ticket on a Hollywoodian version.
Aspecially in the case of Daisy! Don´t forget it was shot in a Western European country... the movie has the look and feel of the West.

What is this so called bias for remakes based on? It´s al matter of power of the distributors and non English (commercial) movies are hardly given a chance. In western countries where subtitling is commonplace a production like Daisy really do stand a chance of being succesful.

All the ingredients are present pretty (internationally succesful) girl pretty boys, some guns some shooting. A complicated love affair.Internationally extremely succesful director, now shooting shooting his first US cop flick with Richard Gere.
Nice movie score... Beautifull location (sorry now I´m biased..)

But wait... it´s not in English... oh no! Our non Asian customers will not accept this! Come on now..nonsense I say!

Just a note on the Update.

The article notes that even before watching the film, Gold Circle were interested in the film already ('enough to make an offer') during the script writing process. Now whether the real contract came after the screening in Berlin or not, that's of course something only the parties involved can know. iHQ doesn't have any fault here, it's just my 'translator's cut skills' showing up, and just in case, the journalist working around facts to tell a nice story. ^_^

Article also says Jeon might be involved in this, although when they say someone 'expresses interest' it can be just hot air, so I didn't mention it.

Hmm yeah, I guess in my beer-induced rant yesterday I didn't keep Daisy in mind, and generalized about Asian cinema a bit.

But I did basicly say what you are saying. That (especially in Europe) producers could at least try to bring more diverse (foreign) films to the audience.

Even though I'm not 100% sure it would work, because Hollywood is pretty deeply rooted in people's minds, maybe they could use a Hollywood-like movie like Daisy to show people there's more to movies than Hollywood.

But then again... sure it has all the elements, the guns, the hunky guy(s) and pretty girl. But I wouldn't be suprised if in Daisy we'll also get the see a fair amount of melodrama, which again is one of those things western audiences aren't used to and might have trouble accepting.

Anyway, just thinking out loud about the matter. Of course if I have to choose sides I definitely pick the pro-Korean films in cinemas side. :)

Since I tagged that update on there I should probably throw in the source ... that's straight from a VP at GoldCircle. They were interested enough early on to be reading scripts but according to them there was no contract until after they saw the finished product screen in Berlin.

Yeah, probably figured it was something like that.

Just wanted to avoid possible headaches and misunderstandings between the two companies (in case they were reading, that is). If there's anyone to blame for possible mistakes, that's just me.

blind buy or not, this movie wont be a hit in the west.
the movie itself isnt all that great i think, ofcourse i havent seen it so i might have to take that back in the future.
The movie is filled with asian people, and most of the west people dont know the difference between japanese/chinese/korean/etc they think they all talk ching chang chong >_>
So going to a movie where they speak a language you cant understand isnt something allot of the general public will do.

Sure.. in the future asian movies might become a little more populair, but hollywood will always be more populair here.

Theatres will rather have movies like Xmen 3, mission impossible 3 and poo like that.
the people who truely love cinema will go and look beyond that, the rest.. they'll be eating whatever hollywood gags up.