I have heard that the US version of The Office, unlike many other successful American comedies, hasn’t been very successful internationally and that this has been attributed to the differences in business culture. The Office has been remade at least four times – in addition to the British original, there’s the US version, a French version, a French Canadian version (Anglophone Canadians watch the US version), and a German version. I read a piece once in (I think) Slate by someone who compared the various international versions of the show and described some of the differences in depictions of the office environment. IIRC it said that in the French version no one ever seems to do any work except for the immigrant cleaning woman, and in the German version everyone is always eating at their desks.
And, at least half of the examples in that list were intentionally made to have international appeal (including in the U.S.), which undoubtedly led to the decisions on accents and dialogue. Most of the “remade” examples in this thread were likely originally produced without export to the U.S. in mind.
Nitpick:
I’d definitely struggle to tell you which one was made by the BBC.
(Primeval is, despite being shown on BBC America, made by and shown on ITV, a competing network, in the UK).
“Let the Right One In” felt like any number of other Swedish movies, just it happened to also have a vampire in it. For me that was the genius of it, it wasn’t a vampire movie set in Sweden, it was a typical Swedish-style drama that also had a vampire.
I’ve never seen Primeval (and it’s not a BBC show), so I can’t comment on it. Terra Nova? I have seen that. A lot of money has been spent on the sets and costumes; but the CGI is not great - in fact some of it is pretty darn bad. I submit that shows such as Doctor Who have equal, and in some cases better, CGI than that these days (The Mill does some world-class work).
The money there went on the set and the locations, not the CGI.
Those ubiquitous 2/3-walled plywood apartment sets in so many US sitcoms are* not* expensive. Which is largely why they’re ubiquitous.
Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson have been extremely proactive in marketing the remake rights to their show.
Is Let Me In a remake of the movie Let The Right One In or just another version of the book?
Well 4Weddings had (she who must not be named) and Love Actually had many stars in it that had success in the US. Some stars are international and can “open” a picture on either side of the pond.
If a movie does not have these types of stars they need to be remade if you want them to play anyplace but a few select markets.
Titanic? Pirates? Ok maybe a few actors had “British” accents but not a majority of the cast. But when you get from “upper class English accent” to a welsh or scottish accent (an authentic one) a great many Americans can’t understand them.
There are parts of Trainspotting I have no idea what the hell they are saying.
It’s a remake of the movie, but oh so good. The director, Matt Reeves (Cloverfield), was (is) a HUGE HUGE fan of Let The Right One In, knew they were remaking it and lobbied for the director spot. It was going to get remade, guaranteed, so better that it be directed by someone who loved and respected the original than by some hack who didn’t care about the story or characters. Reeves has gotten a lot of shit from closed-minded LTROI fans, but it couldn’t have been done better, with any more respect, by anybody else.
Well, unless the English-language version had been directed by Tomas Alfredson, who directed Let The Right One In, but he was busy prepping for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Gary Oldman. Which is a damned good movie btw. Go see it! Unless it’s bothersome that it’s another version of the 1979 movie starring Alec Guinness. I haven’t seen Alfredson getting shit for that, and the 1979 version isn’t even in a foreign language!
That one wasn’t a movie; it was a TV series.
Oh damn.:smack:
Apologies for the delay in reply - New Year and what not kind of got in the way.
Good that you liked Life On Mars. If you enjoyed it that much, I would say Ashes To Ashes is worth a watch. Be warned though, the first UK season was not all that well received when it first aired (but gets progressively better as it goes on) - I suspect this might be because LoM ends in a way that could be finite and had a lot of good will behind it. I also suspect some negative comment was due to unfavourable comparison with LoM - looking back and knowing what is to come, the opening episodes aren’t brilliant but have to do a reasonable amount of heavy lifting to set up the remainder of the series.
Nevertheless, if you stick with it, it’s enjoyable enough - though not as good as Life ON Mars, imo.
Basic premise of Ashes To Ashes:
A policewoman winds up getting hold of the notes that Tyler leaves behind before committing suicide at the end of LoM and investigates them - only to be shot and wake up in London in 1981. There she discovers that Gene Hunt, Ray Carling and Chris Skelton have all been transferred from Manchester. It seems obvious to the viewer that we’re in a similar place to LoM - but the over-arching story is more about the role of Gene Hunt. It also sticks to the tried and true formula of modern versus “old fashioned” policing methods - but in a slightly different era. After watching, you will doubtless be ready to “fire up the Quattro”.
Because – just compare Nikita with Point of No Return – only American directors understand the essential artistic principle of MORE!
Thank you Candyman74, your posts were very educational 
Some seem to think I’m implying that foreign is always better, I’m not.
In fact I would love to see a US version of Doctor Who with a porta potty TARDIS 
Definitely the majority of the cast. Main cast as follows:
[ul]
[li]Depp (agreed, not British; just puts on a weird accent)[/li][li]Bloom (British)[/li][li]Knightly (British)[/li][li]Davenport (British)[/li][li]Rush (British)[/li][li]Pryce (British)[/li][li]Crook (British)[/li][/ul]Sure, there are a few others sprinkled in there; but it’s mainly British accents, and it’s understood perfectly well by everybody.
Don’t worry; neither did I. Those are extremes. You should try reading the book - it’s written in that Scottish dialect. It’s really hard going.
True enough, but it’s still an American production, made primarily for American audiences. Frankly, the accent in that movie which is hardest for me to make out is Lee Arenberg as Pintel, and he’s from California. 
I don’t really know how to respond to that. I seem to have been drawn unwillingly into a debate about movies which I didn’t want to do, not having any knowledge of the processes involved at all. I can tell you how it works in TV. Movies - not so much (read: not at all).
One might argue that a better, more experienced director who also respected the original could have done better. But why argue with closed-minded LMI fans?