TORONTO – Since its Feb 20th release in Italian theatres, Paolo Genovese’s romantic comedy Madly has earned more than $19 million domestically, and garnered over 2 million admissions. The Perfect Strangers director also currently holds the Guinness Record for having made the movie with the most remakes in history.
His film Perfect Strangers, about a dinner party that goes haywire after its guests agree to share the contents of their cell phones, was remade in 24 countries – except in the U.S. In an unusual twist of fate for Genovese, Harvey Weinstein’s company bought the rights for U.S. distribution just before his public downfall and eventual imprisonment.
But now with his latest hit Madly, a film that cleverly tracks the thoughts of a couple on a dinner date, the Roman-born filmmaker has a second chance at charming American audiences. In a recent interview with Variety, Raffaella Leone (Owner and CEO of Leone Film Group), informed that the team “is getting remake requests from all over the world”. But she wants to “manage things a bit differently”, referring to remake rights of course.
Leone is proposing that her film company “coproduce the film’s remakes in European countries such as Spain, France, and Germany”. Most interestingly, she suggested that Genovese could possibly direct the U.S. adaptation. “We are discussing the possibility with Paolo that he could direct the U.S. adaptation”. Traditionally, English language adaptations are controlled by American Studios – who typically hire top American directors to helm the picture.
There are however examples of foreign filmmakers remaking their films in the English language, like Takashi Shimizu’s horror film Ju-On: The Grudge (2002). The Japanese filmmaker directed its American counterpart, The Grudge two years later. And while the original film scored an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, its box office return was a mere $3 million internationally. Conversely, the American remake was panned by critics but scored big at the box office, earning $187 million worldwide.
Leone Film Group’s approach is a smart gamble, and they’ll be hoping for a similar cash in. Considering that some of Madly’s elements have been compared with those in Pixar’s $2.5 billion-dollar animated franchise Inside Out, it’s not unfathomable that they could have a hit remake on their hands. Leone says that they will be “taking an office in Cannes” in May, where they will be looking to close a slew of deals on Madly.
Genovese directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Isabella Aguilar, Lucia Calamaro, Paolo Costella and Flaminia Gressi. RAI Cinema International Distribution is handling sales on the readymade Italian version titled “FolleMente”.
(Images courtesy of 01 Distribution)
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
