The Remake Industry: The Practice of Remaking Films from the Perspective of Industrial Actors

Though current research on the film remake phenomenon acknowledges an underlying industrial process, it rarely analyses it. Therefore, building on expert interviews with people working in the remake industries of the Low Countries, this article places the production aspect of the film remake process central. The findings suggest that the manner in which these cultural mediators describe and evaluate the film remake mirrors popular discourses and seems to affect the production process of film remakes themselves. It was found that the phenomenon is generally seen as the result of a lack of originality, authenticity and is, moreover, highly commercially driven. These aspects were found to sometimes function as a license for initiating remake projects. However, next to the financial benefits, other personal and creative rationales were advanced. Additionally, the element of localization was deemed as one of the most essential tactics in the creative process. Finally, distributors appear to be crucial figures in the emergence of film remakes in small geo-linguistic film markets.