Comments on: Miramax, Focus and Kathleen Kennedy Will TELL NO ONE

By: READER#9

READER#9 — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:07:53 +0000

I read the book and liked it so much I decided to see the French film version on the big screen. I was NOT disappointed. Never a dull moment and it came with a healthy dose of “What the Hell is going on?”, just like the book. I am not so interested in the what Miramax and Kathleen Kennedy will be doing with the book. Americans usually screw up remakes. Instead of being faithful to the book, they try to mirror the original film, but then add some “twists” some MBA studio head with no creativity decided it needed.

Sorry if I seem a tad bitter, but I recently saw what the American movie studio system did to that great BBC miniseries, State of Play.

By: popculturenerd

popculturenerd — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:07:08 +0000

Oh my gosh, that crossing-the-highway scene was craaaazy! I think I stopped breathing. And it looked like Cluzet was really doing it, not some stuntman. I kept thinking, They must have had good insurance on this film. And then I thought, It's like Eddy Murphy in Bowfinger!

By: popculturenerd

popculturenerd — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:02:30 +0000

Julien and le0pard13, you aren’t grouches. I agree with you on pretty much everything. Most of the time, remakes are horrible and useless. In fact, I can’t think of any right now that improved upon the original (anyone?). My excitement from hearing about this stemmed more from thinking that maybe the film will get a wider audience here once the subtitles are gone. It’s unfortunate but I’ve recommended the original to people and the minute they hear “French film,” their eyes glaze over.

Like you said, Julien, Guillaume Canet created a perfect little movie and the American version has more chance of being inferior than better. But me being eternally optimistic until proven wrong, I’m hoping they’ll get some top-notch director (i.e. David Yates or Paul Greengrass, both foreigners—ha!) who’ll at least not ruin the source material.

By: le0pard13

le0pard13 — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:11:32 +0000

A lot of what commenter Julien says I’m in complete agreement about. Of course if studio execs weren’t wasting our time already remaking someone else’s (older American, or newer European / Asian) successful movies instead of reaching for great original material (like Coben’s book), Tell No One would have been made here, first. Yes, it’s a pet peeve and a game of mine–spotting the remake and naming the original.

You didn’t think the recent ‘Fighting’ movie was original, did you? See Walter Hill’s 1975 ‘Hard Times’ for some perspective. I wrote a post about this in March.

Anyway, PCN your casting suggestions are good ones. But a curmudgeon like me loves to grumble 😉

By: Julien

Julien — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:04:43 +0000

I loved both the book and the movie too!
I must say I was quite proud when French director Guillaume Canet was chosen by Harlan Coben himself to get the rights for the film adaptation. And he did a great job with it!
So I feel rather upset when I hear that an American producer now wants to remake it!
Ok, this one was an American product at first, but as G. Canet did his work brightly, why on earth does anyone need to redo it (probably worse I guess)?

As a movie fan, remakes are a really annoying subject for me!
I mean, if the work was done once, and nicely done, why do they spend time and energy to redo it when they could use those resources to create something new and original?
And let’s be honest, 9 out of 10 times, the remake is less good than the first version!
Ok, now I sound like an old grumpy guy missing the good old days!…

By: Eddy

Eddy — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:33:29 +0000

Loved the book. As I think that I’ve written here before, I’m of the opinion that it’s the one of the best mystery novels written in the past umpteen years. We recently rented the move and we really liked it. At little slow at the beginning, but it took off at just the right time. It includes the best crossing-a-highway-while-running-away scene ever.