You know what's awesome? Hollywood remakes of foreign language films! Not only are they entirely necessary, but they are also always better than the original film — so it’s with great delight that we are able to report on another one of said Hollywood remakes.
Okay, that’s the sarcastic bit out of the way. DreamWorks has acquired the rights to Ken Scott’s French-Canadian comedy “Starbuck,” which will be written and directed by Scott, again. When we think about the word Starbuck, we immediately think of either Moby Dick, “Battlestar Galactica,” or cups filled with steaming hot coffee…but in this film the cups are filled with something entirely different. The original film followed a middle-aged man whose life changes when he finds out that he has fathered 533 children through sperm donation, and that a few hundred of those children have expressed the wish to meet their biological father. As you can imagine, hilarity ensues.
Rather than saying: “We loved the film and thought we’d back it with a big marketing budget and push for a much wider distribution so audiences everywhere can see for themselves how good it is,” DreamWorks CEO Stacey Snider said of Scott’s film: "We were completely charmed by the story in 'Starbuck' and saw the potential for a commercial remake with universal appeal.”
Translation: “Great film, but films with words at the bottom of the screen don’t appeal to the illiterat.e. But hey, the concept sounds great and it’s still in the safe hands of the original director, so maybe this won’t be a colossal waste of time. Expect a Hollywood-friendly cast to assemble in the coming months, while the original film continues to roll out across a selection of international territories.