DreamWorks is making moves on the feature film Starbuck. Sadly, this isn’t a Battlestar Galactica spinoff starring the very kick-ass Katee Sackhoff, as the studio is instead planning a remake of the 2011 French-Canadian film of the same name. The comedy centers on a middle-aged man who finds out that he fathered 533 children via sperm donation. His life is turned upside down when a few hundred of the donor babies “express an irrepressible need to meet their father.” In a strange decision, DreamWorks has set the original co-writer and director Ken Scott to write and direct the remake. Hit the jump for more, including the trailer for the original film.
Per Variety, DreamWorks CEO Stacey Snider remarked that the studio was charmed by Scott’s original film and “saw the potential for a commercial remake with universal appeal.” They’ve put the film on the fast track towards a production start date later this year, and casting is apparently already underway. I would think it’d be strange to remake your own film (especially a comedy) barely a year after the original came out, but it seems like Scott is up to the task. Hit the jump to watch the trailer for the original.
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Regardless of Scott’s involvement, I’m sad to hear this because I think if anybody plans on seeing “Starbuck”, they should see this version. I think the film has enough appeal as is despite it being foreign. More-so, it’s comedic mechanisms aren’t ‘out there’ so I can’t imagine American audiences being lost in translation.
The original was good, one of our country’s best and highest grossing films of 2011 remarkably. Having said that, I could definitely see enough American comedy stars being considered for this, most notably Adam Sandler and Kevin James for the two male leads. If the film does pull through, it’ll just be another case of the Hollywood industry demonstrating its dominance over the weaker, national, government funded film groups of different countries. It’s really difficult for these productions to find an audience for one, it’s even harder to deal with selling the rights to the biggest competitor and having the original go by virtually unnoticed, domestically and internationally. I do hope Dreamworks tries to do better with the film by hiring Ken Scott, which is a solid choice in making sure it doesn’t deviate far from the original source material.