Another day, another remake story. This time out it’s Columbia Pictures that has revealed plans to produce an American remake of the Dutch thriller Taped, according to Deadline. Red Wagon Entertainment’s Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher, who currently are working on Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, will produce the remake.
"We’re huge fans of Taped – and believe that Doug and Lucy have just the right take on the material to adapt it for English speaking audiences," Columbia Pictures President of Production Hannah Minghella said in a statement.
The premise sounds rock solid. While vacationing in Buenos Aires, a couple inadvertently videotapes the murder of a local by a corrupt police officer, and then must stay one step ahead of the offending law enforcers in order to protect the tape and save their own lives.
In addition to Gatsby, Red Wagon’s also producing The Wettest County, John Hillcoat’s Prohibition-era period drama starring Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf as bootleggers, so clearly they have a nose for strong material. That bodes well for this new project, though this is yet another case where a successful foreign film is getting a U.S. remake before 99% of Americans are even able to see the original. In similar scenarios, The Raid and Sleepless Night will have U.S. remakes in production before the foreign originals are distributed. It’s a trend, though it’s too early to tell if it will be successful yet. For now, I’ll say that Taped sounds interesting, but I’d like to see how it plays in the Norwegian version before I figure out how a U.S. director will retell it.
