Release Date: October 23, 2015 You'd think that after Spike Lee's ill-judged attempt to Americanise Korean classic Oldboy ended in critical disappointment and financial devastation, Hollywood would steer clear of remaking established foreign gems...and yet the road to cinematic ruin continues with the upcoming The Secret in Their Eyes, based on the Argentinean movie of the same name. So whilst the original film, derived from the book by Eduardo Sacheri, is renowned as one of the best ever movies to come out of Argentinean, it has been decided upon that the initial subtitled version of this dark and twisty tale is not quite adequate enough for English-speaking audiences, and it must be made with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts in the leading roles (which you have to admit, is an impressive cast, at least). But the problem here isn't with the resulting film; it's the fact that the resulting film needed to be created in the first place. After all, remaking a great movie comes with risks of its own, but it's the audience pandering that really smarts; Hollywood does not trust its audiences to seek out foreign movies, and so it remakes them on their behalf. As long as audiences buy into the remakes, they'll keep coming. And yet imagine what the studios could conjure up if they didn't need to focus on imitations and clones.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
