Funny Games

So for this post, I decided to use the film Funny Games, originally made in Austria in 1997 and re-done in America in 2008. The original was directed by Michael Haneke and starred Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, and others. The American version was also directed by Michael Haneke featured Naomi Watts and Tim Roth (two big stars) in the same roles.

The interesting thing about this remake is that, like Gus Van Sant's Psycho, it is recreated shot-for-shot. Honestly, I don't understand why filmmakers choose to do their re-makes in this way, although it kind of makes sense since the director is the same. Perhaps he is simply "translating" the film for a new audience and market, with recognizable Hollywood stars and in a language that American audiences can understand.

The plots appear to be identical according to IMDb and Wikipedia. I cannot find any information that compares the two versions, which one wouldn't expect from a shot-for-shot remake. An interesting note is the financial failure of the re-made version. Its budget was $15 million but only brought in $7.7 million in revenue, meaning it lost a little less than half of its budget. Not a very strong showing.

Determining the financial success of the original is a bit trickier. Wikipedia lists a budget of $5 million, but no revenue figures. IMDb lists several numbers from various countries, but all in different currencies and no "total revenue" at all. It's hard to tell whether or not this version made or lost money, either.

Essentially, this film seems like a money-losing venture for all parties involved. It makes me wonder why a remake was made if the original wasn't even financially viable. Why would you go into a project based on something that had a poor showing to begin with? It's funny that the remake was also not successful. Perhaps the remake served only to satisfy the director and production companies who backed it, as they determined early on that they wouldn't even make back their budget.