New Rights Deal Makes Kurosawa Remakes That Much More Likely
As the Weinsteins' upcoming remake of The Seven Samurai and Chris Rock's planned update of High and Low have taught us, remaking the of Akira Kurosawa is a fun and potentially lucrative hobby. The only issue: Yikes, getting those international remake rights! What a pain! Here we are, just tryin' to reinterpret a library of classic films by a legendary director, and all these lawyers are telling us it isn't as easy as all that. Why can't there just be a virtual outlet mall of Kurosawa films from which we can browse and purchase those that might look good on Sam Worthington? Oh, hey, now there is!
According to Variety, Splendent Media has worked out a multi-year deal to represent worldwide rights (everywhere but Japan) to nearly 70 Kurosawa titles--including 19 un-produced screenplays just waiting to be marketed under the heading "from the guys who brought you Ikiru"--which will reportedly "streamline" the process of handing over right to all the "countless American and European filmmakers [who] have expressed intense interest in remaking Kurosawa's films." These ill-conceived remakes now require even less thought than just adding a modern date to the title of Rashomon! Just head on over to Splendentmedia.com/akira-kurosawa/ and make your remake shopping list, but you'd better move fast--already Splendent themselves have missed out on the aforementioned Seven Samurai and High and Low, as well as Drunken Angel and Akiru, due to pre-existing remake contracts. You snooze, you lose [the chance to turn Kurosawa's script for Wrestling Ring Festival into a The Rock vehicle].
