Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Red Dawn remake changes enemy from China to North Korea

No kidding. At LA Times:
When MGM decided a few years ago to remake "Red Dawn," a 1984 Cold War drama about a bunch of American farm kids repelling a Soviet invasion, the studio needed new villains, since the U.S.S.R. had collapsed in 1991. The producers substituted Chinese aggressors for the Soviets and filmed the movie in Michigan in 2009.

But potential distributors are nervous about becoming associated with the finished film, concerned that doing so would harm their ability to do business with the rising Asian superpower, one of the fastest-growing and potentially most lucrative markets for American movies, not to mention other U.S. products.

As a result, the filmmakers now are digitally erasing Chinese flags and military symbols from "Red Dawn," substituting dialogue and altering the film to depict much of the invading force as being from North Korea, an isolated country where American media companies have no dollars at stake.
Chinese invaders would have added some ("some") level of realism to the movie. But North Korea? Gimme a break.

I guess I should also point out that in the original movie the kids didn't repel any invaders. They were only moderately successful guerilla fighters in the opening weeks of World War 3.

No comments:

Post a Comment