There are serious talks about Ron Howard remaking the recent French film Cache. The folks over at comingsoon.net give us this on the story:
Ron Howard may make an American version of Cache for Universal Pictures, reports Variety. Brian Grazer will produce the remake for Imagine, which acquired the rights from Plum Pictures, with Howard eyeing to direct. Plum’s Celine Rattray will executive produce, along with Randy Simon, and Plum’s Galt Niederhoffer and Daniela Taplin Lundberg will co-produce.
Here’s the thing, from what I hear the original movie had a lot of flaws. Perhaps Howard could do a better job, and Grazer being attached to producer certainly ups the appeal but I’m still surprised that he is considering it. Howard is getting a lot of respect as a serious director these days.
To remake something that was only out a few years seems a little…desperate. But maybe he has a really good idea of how to do it better. Or, more likely, Universal is going to pay him a heap of cash and then he can do a film that he’s into.
Either way, I am on the fence about seeing the remake. The first one didn’t catch my interest, so I’m not sure how I’ll feel about this second one
this is definitely a wait and see kind of film. As it seems to be for Howard himself.
Perhaps it is an American conciet as to what “better” means.
Usually this means did more at the box office and I am told time and time again that Americans don’t like to ‘read’ movies.
Just because one foriegn original US remake fares well in the American marketplace should not be a carte blanche to have the right to claim that American remakes of foreign language films will be superior by delault.
Hanake’s Cache was a a powerhouse of vision. This is my opinion.
Speaking objectively, you can tell a Hanake Movie by its tone, the way it looks, the intensity of performance, this partly how I would define directorial vision, a degree of consisntency in all of the above.
Now consistency is something Ron Howard has never had.
Vision is also something he lacks, sure he has been party directing to the occassional great script, and a great perfromance has flourished in at least one of his films, but by and large he is the crown prince of avarage.
Cache was a meditation on racism and guilt, and taken in those terms we might embrace its ambigiouty rather than pointing out ambiguity as a problem in the mindset of the ‘everything on a plate for the hollywood viewer’ rationale.
It is widely seen, at best, as a cinematic masterpiece, and at the very least a vital attack and resurfacing of sordid events in French history.
Now why would Ron Howard want to make an American film about the racism and guilt and brutality in French History ?
I guess we will just have to leave it to beaver to find out.
Howard is a good director and any film can be made better if done right. Do I have to say it? Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED. I’m a big of an Asian film snob and even I have to admit Scorsese’s version is light years better than the Hong Kong original.
We need a remake of Cache even less than we need a remake of Funny Games. Keep Haneke out of Hollywood fer chissakes…
Interested to hear what flaws Cache had from someone who hasn’t seen the movie.
Cache doesn’t need to be done in the US. Anyone who would want to see that kind of movie is willing to read subtitles. This is not like an Asian action or horror movie where the target audience is turned way off by words at the bottom of the screen. I think this is far from being a good commercial film, and has been done too well to want to remake it for artistic reasons.
The guilt of the protagonist was not just about his actions as a child but the guilt of a nation as it changed. Not sure how that could be transfered to the US. Middle eastern hate is too recent. Guessing it would have to be treatment of blacks in the 60s-70s, especially in the south.
I thought Cache was a great movie – don’t really know what you’re talking about when you say it had a lot of flaws…
Remaking it seems a little unnecessary but I guess if they’re going to do it, Ron Howard is a solid enough director (although I do think he’s overrated). I just hope they don’t make the remake too slick and flashy because one of the best things about the original was its extremely economic editing style; the way it let shots play out lent it a real sense of threat and menace…
That seems weird, since the original is kind of localized (it speaks about algerian/french relations, though I guess an American version could talk about middle eastern/american relations) and a big part of it involved french bourgeoise guilt (urban liberal guilt?). Not exactly topics that would entice a mainstream film going audience I would say.