How the World Remade Hollywood: Global Interpretations of 65 Iconic Films - Paperback

by Ed Glaser (Author)

For decades, filmmakers worldwide have been remaking Hollywood movies in colorful ways. They've chronicled a singing and dancing Hannibal Lecter in India, star-crossed lovers aboard the doomed Nigerian ship Titanic, a Japanese expedition to the planet of the apes, and an uncivil war in Turkey between Captain America and a mobbed-up Spider-Man. Most of these films were low budget and many were unauthorized, but all of them were fantastic--and lately have begun to resurface thanks to cherry-picked YouTube clips. But why and how were they made in the first place? This book tells the little-known stories of the wily filmmakers who made an Italian 007 flick by casting Sean Connery's tradesman brother, produced a Turkish space opera by stealing a print of Star Wars for its effects footage, and transported a full-fledged Terminator to the present day--not from a post-apocalyptic future, but from the vibrant mythology of Indonesia. Their stories reveal more than mere imitations; they demonstrate the fascinating ways ideas evolve as they cross borders.

Author Biography

Ed Glaser is a six-time Telly Award-winning filmmaker and film historian based in Champaign, Illinois. In addition to writing about international remakes, he has restored and remastered Turkish adaptations of Rambo and Star Wars, as well as published the first English translation of Dracula in Istanbul (the 1928 pirated Bram Stoker rewrite that formed the basis of a 1953 Turkish film).