Unit 26 - Remaking Films task 2

Unit 26: Film Studies

Task 2

The film that I have chosen is ‘The Italian Job’. The film was first made in 1969 and featured an all-star cast of Michael Caine, Benny Hill and Noel Coward and many more. The new cast consisted of actors such as Mark Walberg, Jason Statham and Donald Sutherland and many more.

 

Remaking a film is a big risk, a film such as the Italian Job was a dangerous pick from the producers, and it was important that they got it right. The films budget differed in the amount but when you watched the film, you realise that the money difference meant little. The remake cost a huge 60 million dollars and the old film cost around 3 million dollars (before inflation).

The films were both produced and distributed by Paramount pictures. The films are well known for the car chases, the actual plot and use of the mini coopers. The plot is a unique idea that had never been done before and apart from the remake.

The plot was the same in both films but there was an added back-story as they usually go for with the remake with the makers just aiming to go for a re release with different actors, which could also show which for a Hollywood film it looked like quite a cheap remake. Both films were both made in the same place in the south of France and in northern Italy.

The Italian job (1969) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064505/ 

The Italian job (2003) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317740/?ref_=rvi_tt

When you look at the two trailers you defiantly see the difference in the effects used by the film editors and the directors. In the trailer for the first film we see the typical before computer graphics could be added to films. The films are very similar in the trailers and the plot is very well explained in the remake which took away from the guess work of the first film which is helpful to some but some fans may not like the simple film that the sequel is and they will feel it makes the film less unique.
 

The special effects used in the remake are much better than the ones used in the original and the ones used in the remake are better but that would be because of the computer graphics of the modern day and the special effects of the guns and explosions helped the film with action loving viewer of the film.

 

Technology would play a big part in both films and despite the fact that the new films had all the computer graphics I feel that they did not use all of their technological weapons. The directing from F. Gray Gray and Peter Collinson wasn’t very different really the action shots from the first film by Collinson were mirrored by Gray Gray in the new film.

The grossing between the two films was for the second film $176 million but for the first film I couldn’t find an gross for the first film but I’d guess that the sequel would have earned more than the original because films that are remade are generally followed by fans of the first films, if the first film is a success. 

 

Overall, i would say that this film was more of a success with the first film than with the sequel.