1. Danny Bradley
LO2
For the assignment brief I have been asked to write an essay as to why production companies
produce remakes and all the important factors involved in producing a remake. A main example of a
production remake is the Hollywood remake of the Spanish film ‘Rec’ which is called ‘Quarantine. I
will discuss why the production companies have made a contemporary remake from the original
version of the film.
The film ‘Rec’ is filmed by using a handheld camera and
throughout the whole film there are no non-diegetic sounds
only dialogue and diegetic sounds. The use of this style of
filming is extremely effective because it puts the audience
into the film whereas other filming techniques which are
used in horror films make the audience simply just
spectators; on the other hand the first person style puts the
audience into the film. Also this style keeps the realism of
the film which adds more fear into the viewers, instead of
secluding them from the intensity of the film. One of the
main factors as to why there was a remake of ‘Rec’ was the
language barrier because whilst watching a film (unless you
speak fluent Spanish) you don’t really want to try and focus
on the film as well as trying to read subtitles because you
can tend to miss bits of the film which can ruin the entire
film for you. So this influenced a major part of the remake
another reason as to the why there is a remake is that the
film is shot in a first person mode because of the popularity
in video games in this generation especially in first person shooters like ‘Call of duty’ and ‘Left For
Dead’ both of which use this style and both are extremely popular, selling out on the first day of
release. This style is very popular for our generation because
of the technology which is used and the game play because a
game or film these days isn’t good enough just by viewed, the
audience want it as realistic as possible to get themselves into
the game and to look around on the game as if they were
looking around themselves in real life. So this is a major key
factor into why the film was shot in this unique style. Jaume
Balagoro isn’t the only auteur who has used this style of
horror film, the films ‘Cloverfield’ and ‘Diary of the dead’ both
used the same style of filming. I believe that this is both a
coincidence and for the audience’s pleasure, I think this
because they must too have noticed the rise in popularity in
first person shooters so I think that they also chose to make
the film in this way. I also think they filmed it because of the
horror films our generation grew up on; ‘the ring’ (which is
also a remake from a foreign language into English as the
original was Japanese) ‘The Descent’ and ‘the omen’ it’s hard
to find something original which is actually scary other than
literally making it seem as if the audience is in the film. So I
think that this style will become very popular because the audience are more involved in the film
instead of just viewing it.
The reason to why the film was remade for an American or English audience is because whilst
watching a film with subtitles it’s hard to read them and watch the film at the same time, also by

2. Danny Bradley
remaking the film in English it appeals to the English speaking which is an estimated 1800 million
people whereas there are only 500 million that speak Spanish. Rec had a much smaller finance
compared to quarantine however the overall box office there was only £8,000,000 difference
between them both but the budget on the other hand was a big difference of £11,000,000 so we
expect a high class production from Quarantines budget.
The film Quarantine was directed by John Eric Dowdle and was produced by Roy Lee, Doug Davison
and Sergio Aguero. Quarantine is virtually a shot for shot remake of Rec and was made in 2008, a
year after the original was made so by the film being made in such a short space of time there must
be a reason and in my opinion the reason is because of the language barrier and the stars. Also the
production company Screen Gems which actually distributed Quarantine wanted to get the film
released so quick because it is a vertically integrated company. By being a part of the Sony Group
there was synergy between the two production companies which meant that partnership came
easily and by being able to work together gave an overall success.
The similarities between the two films are obvious when watching both films, the way that it is
filmed for example; both films are filmed with the first person camera view from a reporting
scenario which keeps the intensity of the original as we are deep into the film as an audience.
Another similarity is the storyline as there is a strong coalition between them, virtually scene for
scene. There are differences however; there are different actors in different locations which give the
sense that it is a different film and another difference is that the ending to the film changes and the
virus itself is different. For Rec it is a religious demon possessing people and controlling them
whereas in Quarantine it is a virus which has got out of military testing and has turned people into
flesh eating zombies.
I am now going to compare two more films, the original Karate Kid and the contemporary remake.
The Karate Kid released in 1984 was directed by
John G. Avildsen and was distributed by Columbia
Pictures. The budget for this film was $8,000,000
and managed to rake in an astonishing
$90,815,558 at the box office. The plot to the
karate kid is about a young lad called Daniel moves
to Los Angles from their house in New Jersey; he
then starts to get bullied from some local boys and
ends up in a number of fights. Mr Miyagi their
apartment’s handy man turns out to be more than
just an old man but he is actually had life long
experience in karate and is extremely well trained
in the martial art. The boys in which are bullying
Daniel are also trained in martial arts but a much
different style of karate, a much more violent and
unethical version of the self-defence martial art.
Mr Miyagi agrees to teach Daniel the art of karate but by first teaching him that it’s not about just
the hands but it’s about the heart and soul. The bullies agree to leave him alone if he fights at the

3. Danny Bradley
competition against the main bully. Daniel then fights him at the end but gets injured but continues
to fight and beats him, showing that heart and soul conquer straight up violence.
The contemporary remake of The Karate Kid is directed by Harald Zwart and was released in 2010,
26 years after the original was released which is a much
longer gap than the year Screen Gem waited to release
Quarantine. This time the difference is that the stars
which are used are Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, Jaden is
the son of Will Smith so is an already acknowledged star
and is an up and coming actor and Jackie Chan is famous
worldwide for his martial arts and also for his acting, so
to the build up of the release to this remake there was a
lot of hype for the stars. This is star theory so by using
actors such as these it draws a lot of attention both in
the media and for the audience, it makes people want to
go and pay to watch the film to see our stars. The remake
was also distributed by Columbia Pictures, so like Screen
Gem they were clever and managed to make money
from an original concept by remaking it but distributing it
using the same company so the maximum money was made. The budget for the remake was $40
million which is a massive difference from the $8,000,000 from the original so by it being a high
budget film our expectations are incredibly high, and the film made $359,125,613 at the box office.
In my opinion by using these stars it helped them massively in the box office and made people
interested in the film.
Another example of a remake is War of the Worlds and this was also remade many years later, it was
actually remade 52 years after the original! The original
was released in 1953 and the new remake was then
made in 2005, the original was directed by Bryon
Haskin and was distributed by Paramount Pictures and
the estimated budget is $2,000,000. The remake was
made in 2005 and was also distributed by Paramount
Pictures but was directed by Steven Spielberg,
although we have a strong collation with distribution
companies releasing remakes on their company but
money wasn’t the reasoning behind this remake. The
actual reason for the remake was because of global
issues and a specific incident which we all know, 9/11.
Spielberg has said that if this event hadn’t had
happened then he is unsure whether the remake
would have taken place but this gave him inspiration to
create the remake. The remake had a budget of
$132,000,000 and made a total of $591,745,550 at box

4. Danny Bradley
office, so this remake is massive compared to the original. They also used stars such as Tom Cruise,
Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin which also relates to star theory.