New Line has tapped actor/producer/director extraordinaire Larry Fessenden to helm their please-don’t-ruin-it adaptation of THE ORPHANAGE. The original film was produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by his padawan Juan Antonio Bayona. Fans of the original should be slightly comforted that del Toro has written the new script with Fessenden, and hand-picked him for the director’s chair.
Even if that is the case, this story touches a nerve with me, because THE ORPHANAGE happens to be my favorite horror film of all time, and frankly, I find this Americanized remake a rather odd endeavor. The original film was released in 2007, and pretty widely I might add, so it’s not like you had to hunt it down in some art theater or catch it on DVD years later. Does the fact that it was in another language warrant an entirely new adaptation of it three years later?
It’s like remaking PAN’S LABYRINTH or CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. They’re foreign, yes, but were widely released and acclaimed anyways. Are we really that lazy that we need an entirely new film to be made so we don’t have to read subtitles? Judging by all my non-movie geek friends who starting bitching and moaning when I “try to make them read when they just want to watch a movie,” the answer is a resounding yes.