1. Samantha Rogan
Same film, different time and place
Director: Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza
Producer: Alberto Marini
Cast: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza and Jorge-
Yamam Serrano
Distributor: Film max
Country or origin – Spain
Budget – €1,500,000
Box office takings - $32,492,948
In this essay I will be comparing the original films rec and karate kid with their
remakes quarantine and karate kid. Rec was released by film max which is a
small Spanish company. Because the film was Spanish it had to have English
subtitles which restricted its audience because not many people enjoy
watching subtitled films.
Plot
The film follows a Spanish late-night television reporter, Ángela Vidal, through
the lens of her cameraman, Pablo. During one report of the happenings in a
local fire station in Barcelona, the duo follow a team of fire-fighters who get a
call from an apartment building nearby about a trapped woman.. Something
strange is happening in the building and the residents along with two police
men, fire men and the camera crew are locked in the building. They discover
some sort of disease is passing onto those who are bitten changing them into
‘zombie’ like creatures. Disease is passing onto those who are bitten changing
them into ‘zombie’ like creatures. The camera crew find the key to a room
which has been locked for 7 years; in there they find articles of a young girl
2. Samantha Rogan
who has been possessed. When searching the room Pablo and Angela find the
possessed girl and keep quite so she doesn’t find them. When Angela tries to
escape she falls and drops the camera you then hear the screech of the
possessed girl and Angela being dragged away.
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Producer: Doug Davison, Roy Lee, Sergio Aguero, and
Clint Culpepper
Cast: Jennifer Carpenter, Jay Hernandez and
Columbus Short
Country of origin – America
Budget- 12million
Box office takings - $41,319,906
Distributor: Screen Gems
Quarantine was released by screen gems in 2008 it was an English speaking
film so subtitles were not required and the film wasn’t restricted.
Plot
A television reporter named Angela Vidal and her cameraman Scott are
assigned to follow firefighters Jake and Fletcher on their night shift. The crew
responds to an emergency call from an apartment complex, they find police
officers already on the scene in response to blood curdling screams coming
from one of the apartment units. They soon learn that a woman living in the
building has been infected by something unknown. After a few of the residents
are viciously attacked, they try to escape with the news crew in tow, only to
find that the CDC has quarantined the building. Phones, internet, televisions
and cell phone access have been cut-off, and officials are not relaying
information to those locked inside. As Angela and Scott continue to look
3. Samantha Rogan
through the apartment, a door opens from the attic and Scott uses the light on
the camera to investigate. A boy swats at the camera, breaking the light. Scott
turns on the camera's night vision. Scott and Angela hear loud banging noises
inside the apartment. When Scott looks around, he sees a man. The man finds
Angela and Scoot, Angela drops the camera and when she finally finds it again
she picks it up and sees the man eating Scott. Screaming the man realises
there’s another person in the room and drags her off into the darkness.
You can see from both plots that rec and quarantine are nearly identical so
why would screen gems consider doing a remake when rec is only a year
apart?
I think John Erick Dowdle chose to remake rec because he knew it would make
a lot of money. Also he knew there were barriers to the film such as it was
Spanish and had to have English subtitles so he was able to have the
opportunity in making it in English and having a wider audience with no
barriers. Rec and quarantine were influenced by other films such cloverfield to
use the hand held documentary style. Screen Gems bought the rights to
produce and distribute the original film as well as their version Quarantine.
This is an example of vertical integration; Screens Gems produced and
distributed the films. They used synergy to create a fuss over Rec when they
released Quarantine, by buying the rights they were able to release both films
around the same time which means if the audience would have been watching
Quarantine in the cinema and hearing about Rec the public would then want to
either rent or even buy the film to compare them both.
I am now going to compare karate kid with the old and newest release, there
was a longer time space between.
4. Samantha Rogan
Director: John G. Avildsen
Year of Production: 1984
Cast: Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita and Elisabeth Shue.
Country of Origin: United States
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Budget: $8,000,000
Box Office Takings: $90,815,558
Plot
Daniel and his mum move from New Jersey to California. She has a new job,
but Daniel discovers that a dark haired Italian boy with a Jersey accent doesn't
fit into the blond surfer crowd. Daniel is able to talk is way out of some fights
but then is attacked by a group of boys who go to the same karate school. As
Daniel is passing out from the beating he sees Miyagi, the elderly gardener
leaps into the fray and save him by outfighting half a dozen teenagers. Miyagi
and Daniel soon find out the real motivator behind the boys' violent attitude in
the form of their karate teacher they find this out because Miyagi says he
won’t teach him but he will take him to a karate school so when they arrive
they soon realise it’s the karate teacher. So Miyagi promises to teach Daniel
karate Miyagi shows Daniel that there is more to karate than violence, and
perhaps the best way to solve the problem he has with the bullies is in the All
Valley Karate Championship.
5. Samantha Rogan
Director: Harald Zwart
Year of Production: 2010
Cast: Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan
Country of Origin: United States
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Budget: $40 million
Box Office Takings: $359,125,613
By having well known actors in the Karate kid remake such as Jackie Chan and
Jaden smith this will make their fans want to watch the film. Because of the
age difference between to the two actors this targets the range of different
ages of the audience from adults to children. Also Jaden smith and Justin
Bieber recorded the theme song. Justin Bieber is a worldwide popstar and
using footage of the film in the music video is used very cleverly by the makers
of karate kid because it is showing fans clips of the movie this will make them
want to go and watch it. By Columbia pictures distributing the remake or
Karate kid and also they brought out original shows that they did this knowing
they would make a lot of money from an existing film.