ROTTEN TOMATOES: New Line to Remake del Toro-Produced Orphanage

New Line to Remake del Toro-Produced Orphanage

Spanish horror import due in theaters this December.

by Jen Yamato | September 08, 2007

New Line is set to produce an English language remake of this fall's Spanish horror film, The Orphanage. Guillermo del Toro, who produced the original by newbie director Juan Antonio Bayona, will resume producing duty.

The original Spanish production, in U.S. theaters this December, stars Belen Rueda as a mother who buys the orphanage where she grew up but becomes frightened by the imaginary friend that her young son begins to play with. As director Bayona's feature length debut, The Orphanage (El Orfanato) impressed del Toro, who has seemingly adopted a mentor-protege relationship with the up-and-coming filmmaker.

Click for more photos from The Orphanage

"Bayona has captured some very moody and terrifying footage that just blew me away," he said when Picturehouse snapped up U.S. rights back in February. Comparisons are already being drawn to del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, which arguably paved the way for Spanish language horror-fantasy last year.

The Orphanage debuted to wild acclaim at Cannes earlier this year (see our mini review here) and is on the program for this week's Toronto Film Festival. It currently has a 100 percent Tomatometer with six reviews in.

Source: Variety

Check out our full Toronto Film Festival coverage here!

Related Items

Movie:	Pan's Labyrinth
	The Orphanage
Celeb:	Guillermo Del Toro
	Belen Rueda
	Juan Antonio Bayona

(1-15 of 15 posts) | Reply

KubrickIsG-d writes:
on Sep 08 2007 09:17 AM

If this film is so good and already being held up to the esteem of Pan's, why not market it in the US as they did for Pan's Labyrinth rather than immediatly jump to make a remake.

Are we going to continue the trend we took with Japan's Horror films years ago with Spanish horror films by making inferior quality remakes immediatly after the original is released. Is it that Americans are turned off by anything foreign or are we just too lazy to read subtitles? Maybe a combination of both.

(Reply to this)

Matanuki writes:
on Sep 08 2007 09:18 AM

So now they're remaking movies that haven't even come out yet. Ridiculous.

(Reply to this)

TheBlackGuy writes:
on Sep 08 2007 09:40 AM

Jesus Christ that picture is terrifying

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FireflyFan4evr writes:
on Sep 08 2007 09:52 AM

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the majority of film-going Americans are far too lazy and stupid nowadays. I don't them fully, but rather the studios. The studios in their own stupidity have in turn infected millions of others.

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sideburnz writes:
on Sep 08 2007 01:12 PM

In reply to this comment (#1106392)
Americans are just to lazy to read subtitles. I work at a Hollywood Video. There were way too many people who didn't watch Pan's Labyrinth because the didn't want to read the subtitles. It seems like reading has become a chore to most Americans.

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h-town24 writes:
on Sep 08 2007 02:32 PM

You do know all movies with subtitles make most of their money in America right?! You sound like a normal self hating *** who is so stupid that all you can do is make fun of yourself. Americans are lazy, don't want to read ha, ha, ha! Moron!

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arendr writes:
on Sep 08 2007 04:03 PM

Wow...have we really fallen this far? Remakes can be good (see 3:10 to Yuma and Insomnia), but give it a little time before you remake it! If the Spanish language version even had a chance of Americans watching it before-hand, now everyone is just going to wait for the American remake.

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KubrickIsG-d writes:
on Sep 08 2007 04:27 PM

In reply to this comment (#1106958)
America has the largest population of middle-class citizens, making us the largest consumers of movies no matter what, so ofcourse foriegn films sometimes (not ALWAYS idiot) make more money in the US than in their home country, which can have a smaller market. Not to mention our own movies usually dominate their markets. Most foreign films like these, no matter the qualtity, are unfortunatly relagated to arthouses in both America and the country of origin.

I can understand why most (and often the best) foriegn films are not marketed highly in the US, the same way I can understand why most of the best American films are not even marketed here. What I CANT understand is why a movie like this, which has the potential to be a blockbuster, is not worth marketing, only remaking into an American blockbuster (which typically are of poorer quality). I have to look to the masses for that answer.

And about Americans not wanting to read subtitles, i guess what should of been said is the world as a whole does not want to bother to read subtitles, since most countries strictly use dubbing (which at least went out of fashion here, since it makes the greatest films seem like crap)

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Frown88 writes:
on Sep 08 2007 10:14 PM

Yeah they definetly should just wait to see how the Spanish version does in theatres before immediately jumping onto the remake train. They may find that american audiences are more than willing to see something exciting and new compared to all the other boring crap out these days...
but then again
american audiences are often times complete crackheads who go and support films like Rush Hour 3
so..
who knows

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FireflyFan4evr writes:
on Sep 08 2007 11:10 PM

Some of my favourite films of all time are in a foreign language with subtitles: Pan's Labyrinth, The Motorcycle Diaries, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Downfall, The Great Silence, Amores Perros.

Overall, I find that Spanish language films are the easiest foreigns with subtitles to follow and become fully immersed in (i.e. Pan's Labyrinth and Amores Perros come to mind). I can typically agree that many foreigns are unwatchable when dubbed, and it's good it isn't done here anymore to a large degree.

It's truly sad when great films do poorly just because they have subtitles. Thankfully Pan's Labyrinth broke that mold and did quite well in North America, and even more surprising is that nearly everyone that saw it, loved it.

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plughole writes:
on Sep 09 2007 04:03 AM

Doesn't this sound remarkably more similar to The Devil's Backbone than Pan's Labyrinth?

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bigbrother writes:
on Sep 09 2007 08:12 AM

In reply to this comment (#1108547)
I agree, often times what turns me off about subtitles is that they obviously lose something in translation. I notice this most often with Asian films. I thought Crouching Tiger was beautifully filmed, but the translation was so hokey it took away from the story for me.

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TheAncientEnemy writes:
on Sep 09 2007 09:13 AM

My only complaint pertaining to subtitles is that I find myself reading more than looking at the actors. However, there's no way around it. Dubbing is awful.

I know that a lot of people won't watch a movie if it has subtitles. I would have to say that the people who can't tolerate a little reading probably aren't the most film savvy anyway. I have heard a lot of Blockbuster employees sound off about how someone rents a movie and then storms back into the place, movie half-watched, complaining about the "words on the screen." It has happened so often that when you rent a foreign film from them the cashier is supposed to "warn" you that the film you are renting is not in english.

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homeimp writes:
on Sep 09 2007 10:19 PM

I want subtitles. It's the most honest way of perceiving the performance of the original actor. I'm not too lazy! Actually I sometimes find I understand foreign films better that non-foreign because of the subtitles. They make everything so clear. They help me concentrate more intensely so I won't miss anything.

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KubrickIsG-d writes:
on Sep 10 2007 05:09 AM

In reply to this comment (#1109045)
I speak Mandarin and Cantonese pretty fluently, and I'll tell you the quality of Crouching Tiger's dialogue had nothing to do with the translation. It was a poorly written movie, that yes was beautiful to watch but was still of the same quality as any typical Hong Kong martial arts film. Its a good thing Zhang Yimou came out with his trilogy of martial arts films and completly redefined the genre

(Reply to this)