RED DAWN 2011: Converting Chinese into North Koreans with digital magic

Casting China as the villain in the upcoming (assuming MGM can find a buyer for it) remake of RED DAWN was probably not the wisest idea to begin with -- nor was remaking the film at all, really -- but digitally altering costumes and other paraphernalia from Chinese to North Korean and (presumably?) swapping out Mandarin for Korean (will they create new digital mouths on the Asian actors playing the invaders?) to avert a potential backlash from China will handily kill whatever chances the film might have had at the box-office, not to mention render the plot ridiculous. Seriously, North Korea invading the U.S.? North Korea invading anywhere? Even in the most fanciful of alternate universes, that's just preposterous. China's virtually the only place left on earth that could, in theory, mount such an invasion, but there you have it. One producer in the article below says the changes will result in "a scarier, smarter and more dangerous" RED DAWN, but that sounds an awful lot like spin. Guess we'll see, perhaps even via straight-to-DVD. I can understand the decision from a business standpoint -- after all, that's the bottom line -- but creatively it's just a dunderheaded, even cowardly move.

More on the tale here:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-china-red-dawn-20110316,0,995726.story

(one of the comments jokingly suggests making the invaders Canadian. Now that's a money idea, baby! After all, we're right next door, with a largely undefended border, a shared language and socialized medicine to patch up our wounded. Just imagine us rolling down there on our toboggans, loaded for bear with snowballs, to the soaring strains of Ride of the Valkyries!!)

It was always my assumption this one would languish in distribution hell for near eternity before being quietly released straight to DVD in-part by the collapse of MGM and largely due to U.S.-Chinese relations. North Korea? Well, if you were present at the rodeo during the filming of "Borat," then yes, I think the digital overhaul might have an audience.

As for the original "Red Dawn" (1984) I revisited it recently solely to hear Mike J. Nelson and Joel McHale run it through.



Personally, I was never a fan -- not even as an adolescent when it debuted -- of this ridiculous Cold War anxiety attack that managed to be less likely than the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (tongue planted firmly in cheek).

Well, if you guys do plan on invading at least give Michael Moore a courtesy call.

"a scarier, smarter and more dangerous" RED DAWN,

Not being a fan of the original I would think that almost any attempt to revisit the story would make it smarter. It looks as if this effort falls within the narrow "almost" range.

The invaders should have from Uganda--given the technical triumph of that nation's first ever action film, "Who Killed Captain Alex" they even could have done the entire flick for what amounts to pocket change in Hollywood.

Cash wrote:North Korea? Well, if you were present at the rodeo during the filming of "Borat," then yes, I think the digital overhaul might have an audience.

Good point! I never even thought about that. This movie could run for ages in the south with an annual digital overhaul to make the Chinese characters into the whatever ethnic or social or "Other" group the Right is fearful of from year to year! Perhaps they shuttered Robert Zemeckis' motion-capture animation company too soon!

ewaffle wrote:Not being a fan of the original I would think that almost any attempt to revisit the story would make it smarter.

Cash wrote:Personally, I was never a fan -- not even as an adolescent when it debuted -- of this ridiculous Cold War anxiety attack that managed to be less likely than the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (tongue planted firmly in cheek).

I wasn't fond of the original, either. Come to think of it, quite a few John Milius movies have made me itch, which probably means I'm a pinko.