You may remember that back in March I raved about “Red Riding,” the British TV adaptation of David Peace’s quartet of Yorkshire-set crime novels that IFC will soon be distributing theatrically in the U.S.
Specifically, I flipped for the first installment of the three-film series, Julian Jarrold’s “1974” — an exquisitely textured mood piece, with vivid turns from Andrew Garfield and Rebecca Hall, that remains one of the best films I’ve seen this year on any size screen.
Six months later, Americans got to see what British critics had been gushing about since the spring (David Thomson overexcitedly stated that the films excelled “The Godfather” in the pantheon of crime cinema), as “Red Riding” played to a very warm reception in Telluride. (Even if Kris wasn’t entirely won over.)
Now the buzz continues with the announcement that Columbia has acquired remake rights to the project, with director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Steven Zaillian in line to compress Peace’s mammoth narrative into a single feature film. (As a feat of adaptation, expect comparisons to what Curtis Hanson and Brian Helegeland took on James Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet.) Scott will also produce via his Scott Free production company.
Nothing especially surprising about this, given that British miniseries (not that “Riding” is a miniseries in the strict sense, given that it comprises three individually directed films) have long provided fodder for Hollywood, from “Traffic” to “The Singing Detective” to the recent “State of Play.” And I can see the thinking behind giving Scott the reins, if they’re going for the same somber-but-slick polish that marked “American Gangster,” though I can’t imagine his touch matching Jarrold’s for delicacy.
But for me, concern sets in with the news that the film will transplant the action to the U.S. — and not just because it would necessitate fictionalizing the true-life Yorkshire Ripper murders that “Red Riding” revolves around. Even putting that aside, the Yorkshire milieu is the foremost element of both Peace’s novels and the films.
Without its unusual, evocative locale, it’s difficult to see what makes the project’s decade-spanning murder-investigation narrative particularly distinctive. To return to the routine comparison made with Peace’s work, what would “L.A. Confidential” be without L.A., after all?
Comments
9 responses to “Ridley Scott takes on ‘Red Riding’ remake”
Ugh
Okay, so I’ll add this to my pile of remakes nobody needs. I know it happens all the time, but I refuse to see the point in remaking a film that is absolutely fine, just because people in the business think viewers are too lazy or stupid to understand anything that might be remotely foreign to them.
I agree with Chris and I would further argue that Yorkshire is in the DNA of that story and it can’t be Americanized without it just being something else entirely. It’s a completely pointless remake. The setting is everything in Red Riding. You change the setting, it’s not Red Riding. Why bother?
Ridiculous. Why can’t Hollywood just re-release them with stronger marketing set up behind them. It would save them a fortune, and they’d get three good movies out of it. I know IFC is releasing them in America, so – I guess I just don’t get it. It’s like the news that “Death at a Funeral” was already being remade. Only this is worse, because these movies (yes, in particular Jarrold’s) are actually great!
Ridley Scott is a talented director, but he’s definitely become a bit of a hack.
Yes the movies are gonna be released in America in theaters and its even in English! If Americans are already getting the chance to see these films (in English) on the big screen (without subtitles unless you take into account English accents), what on earth do they want o remake them for.
Its like they can barely find a decent non-American film than they want to remake it. Let The Right One in, a perfectly fine movie, made just last year and released in theaters is being remade. Just because it had subtitles, and boy how can we ever tolerate them! Its not even like it was cheaply made or the original had some glaring flaws and stuff. Similarly there are remakes scheduled for international hits The Lives Of Others and Cache. But Red Riding is already in English.
As a brit, I came to these somewhat late (even though I’m a West Yorkshire lad myself) and have been flawed by the brilliance. It makes no sense whatsoever to shift this to the US. Ridley Scott should know better. Why does Hollywood always have to cock things up ?
At least Ridley is British?
I still can’t get over the fact that they almost ignore the Ripper in the first trilogy as the text of “1977” contained most of that content. But to transplant it anywhere other than Yorkshire or The North AND then compress it into one film is ludicrous…and I’m American. I don’t need my films to sound like I do. Apt comparisons to “LA Confidential.” I heard “Narc”/”Smokin’ Aces” director is doing “White Jazz”…hmmm. Very excited for the new David Peace novel this summer.