I saw this article today in The Guardian and couldn’t help but share it here. The article talks about how the director of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has questioned the need for the Hollywood remake. He also expressed anger to cast an American actress to play Lisbeth Salander.
The article talks about “however critically garlanded a film is, if an English-speaking audience has to read subtitles, it will automatically reduce the film's chances at the box office, and confine it to the status of art film, whatever its content.” I experienced this first hand when I called my friend who has read the books to tell her to see the movies and she said she would just wait for the Hollywood version because then she wouldn’t have to read subtitles.
I totally agree with the director. I’ve now seen all three movies in the series (the last just came out in theaters at the end of October), and I thought they were phenomenal. I’m dreading the Hollywood version because I just can’t see how they can top what’s already been done. It’s a shame that Americans won’t consider a movie until Hollywood has re-made it.
Although I've not seen these movies or read the books yet, I find this very interesting in light of the massive success of Avatar, a movie with numerous subtitles! This makes the "people can't handle subtitles excuse" sound more like a "people can't handle foreigners talking in foreign tongues for most of a movie" excuse. It makes me wonder if Hollywood remakes of foreign films are a way for Hollywood to exercise its hegemony. If you think about it, it's essentially implying that any Hollywood film will be better than a foreign film because Hollywood is inherently better, and justifying this by pointing to its higher budgets, famous talent pool, and appeal to English speakers. It's a shame more foreign films haven't been penetrating our market, but I doubt that it's an accident. After all, why see the foreign one when you can see one in English? This is what Hollywood wants you to ask, and part of how it's maintaining its hegemony.
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