Will Smith may well be the biggest movie star in the world, but there’s still some competition in France he has to vanquish. He’ll star in a remake of the movie Welcome to the Sticks, a hit French-language comedy that’s on its way to being the country’s highest-grossing film in history (Titanic holds the record at the moment, naturally). Warner Bros. will distribute the English-language remake, Variety reports, and Smith will also produce.
The original movie is about a postal employee who moves from the sunny south of France (you know, where Cannes is) to the rainy north, referred to as “the sticks.” Given that this is a fish-out-of-water comedy, of course, he’s eventually won over by his new home. So what do we think the American version will be? Will Smith moves from sunny Miami to Bar Harbor, Maine? Or from inner city Brooklyn to plush Greenwich, Connecticut? Hey, we heard a story about a guy from the streets of Philadelphia, born and raised, who found himself in Bel Air, and that made for a pretty good comedy.
It feels like so long since we saw Will Smith in an out-and-out comedy, so it will be nice to see him flexing the comedic muscles that have served him so well in action movies. And as familiar as fish-out-of-water or culture clash comedies are, they’re always entertaining (“Do you understand the words coming outta my mouth!” and so forth). So suck it, French! We can redo your comedies, put our best star in the part, and once again earn your scorn for ruining everything. Oh, and thanks for not booing Indiana Jones at Cannes.
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Let's just hope Hollywood will do a better job than they did on the remakes of 3 men and a baby, birdcage, mixed nuts, or true lies just to name a few. Here's a new idea, why not releasing "welcome to the sticks" in its original version?
Oh and of course the pseudo critic who wrote this article had to criticize the French because stealing and denaturing their movies is not enough, let's add insult to injury. Newsflash, bashing the French is not only distasteful, it is also getting old, and when it is done in an article dealing with Hollywood remaking of one of their most popular movies, it sounds like plain old jealousy to me.
excuse me for my english. I hope you will understand what i want to say :
I just want to add that this french movie is very specific to France. The french title is difficult to adapt. "Bienvenu chez les Ch'tis".
The Ch'tis are like an "ethnic" group. They speak a language looking like french, derived from Picardie language. In fact, in Paris and south of france, people think that they are all dumb 'cause it's an old industrial région where there is lot of unemployment and because they have a strange accent.
So Dany Boon, director and actor in this movie try to show that it's not true and people are generous and nice in this place, and they speak a real (and funny :p) regionnal language !
I don't know how Mr Smith will arrange the US version... I hope he will find a good idea to adapt this ethnical/regional fact to your country !
Best regards from France.
PS : fight against misunderstanding ! France are not coward or arrogant or [what i hear usually from american BBS] . Come in France, and travel here, Paris is not France, take a look in our regions where cultures are differents, you will see hundreds of different minds. -> You are welcome here :D
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Will Smith may well be the biggest movie star in the world, but there’s still some competition in France he has to vanquish. He’ll star in a remake of the movie Welcome to the Sticks, a hit French-language comedy that’s on its way to being the country’s highest-grossing film in history (Titanic holds the record at the moment, naturally). Warner Bros. will distribute the English-language remake, Variety reports, and Smith will also produce.
June 25th, 2008 at 18:06
Let's just hope Hollywood will do a better job than they did on the remakes of 3 men and a baby, birdcage, mixed nuts, or true lies just to name a few. Here's a new idea, why not releasing "welcome to the sticks" in its original version?
Oh and of course the pseudo critic who wrote this article had to criticize the French because stealing and denaturing their movies is not enough, let's add insult to injury. Newsflash, bashing the French is not only distasteful, it is also getting old, and when it is done in an article dealing with Hollywood remaking of one of their most popular movies, it sounds like plain old jealousy to me.