ABSTRACT
Chapter 4: The Americanized Remake proposes that a key motive behind remaking is to produce a new American film with American stars and American settings. While this can involve non-English language movies remade in English to make them more accessible, it also involves US remakes of English-language content from countries like the UK and Australia. In this chapter I explore the politics of Americanization – oftentimes used as a euphemism for American imperialism and American cultural hegemony – and investigate some of the stereotypes about American productions and American audiences, examining the role of factors like subtitles and accents in motivating reimaginings of international content. The commercial nature of US film and television is often contrasted with the assumed artistry of world media: resultantly, American remakes are frequently accused of being dumbed-down, sanitized, and having stupidly happy endings. Americanization of course, can also be synonymous with Hollywoodization whereby the US incarnation is enhanced through higher production values, better looking casts, and a faster-paced, more slickly presented plot. This chapter ends with a discussion of transnational remakes produced by countries other than the US to highlight that such activity is not exclusively an American phenomenon.
