Red Dawn will now face North Korea
Filmed in 2009, Red Dawn centers on a World War III type invasion onto American soil of a foreign country. The original pitted the U.S. against the Soviets, the remake filmed the invaders as the Chinese.
"We were initially very reluctant to make any changes," said Tripp Vinson, one of the movie's producers. "But after careful consideration we constructed a way to make a scarier, smarter and more dangerous Red Dawn that we believe improves the movie."
"The filmmakers now are digitally erasing Chinese flags and military symbols from Red Dawn, substituting dialogue and altering the film to depict much of the invading force as being from North Korea, an isolated country where American media companies have no dollars at stake."
"For less than $1 million [the studio can change] an opening sequence summarizing the story's fictional backdrop, and re-edit two scenes using digital technology to transform many Chinese symbols to Korean...[giving] North Korea a much larger role in the coalition that invades the U.S.
"The filmmakers now are digitally erasing Chinese flags and military symbols from Red Dawn, substituting dialogue and altering the film to depict much of the invading force as being from North Korea, an isolated country where American media companies have no dollars at stake."
"For less than $1 million [the studio can change] an opening sequence summarizing the story's fictional backdrop, and re-edit two scenes using digital technology to transform many Chinese symbols to Korean...[giving] North Korea a much larger role in the coalition that invades the U.S.
Red Dawn comes to theaters November 2nd, 2012 and stars Chris Hemsworth, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Adrianne Palicki, Josh Hutcherson, Isabel Lucas, Josh Peck, Brett Cullen, Matt Gerald. The film is directed by Dan Bradley.
Comments (53)
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Craig Holland Dixon
Wow. Way to ruin it.
1 year agoby @Craig-Holland-DixonFlag
DreadPirateRoberts
Wow @Masta_Chiefed, you really are confused: First, I never said China is not a threat, not that I believe it to be an immediate one militarily. Just that as of today it is not really prepared for a ground invasion across the Pacific. They are much more interested in besting us economically than militarily. And like I already said, North Korea is even sillier as the villain in this.
Second, Red Dawn was not a propaganda tool. It was a jingoistic, ridiculous film that made money doing what those films do. It was not really controversial except to some silly people who think such things actually make a difference. Red Dawn was a RESULT of and attempt to cash in on peoples feelings, not a CREATOR of those feelings. Decades of cold war were NOT nudged in the slightest by a Sheen/Swayze film that was only sort of successful. And no one said it look transcendent. It looks lame, which is why most people including myself will not bother to see it.
Third, I never said that the Chinese people were too dumb to log on and look up who the villains were. In truth, they won't care in general. Any more than the American public will. And the studio is not worried about that either. All they care about is that the film will almost certainly be banned in China in its current form, which will cost them money. And more importantly, other films from that studio will also get banned as punishment, which will also cost them more money. That is ALL this is about.
You can believe anything else you want. But it's still silly.
1 year agoby @dreadpiraterobertsFlag
Masta_Chiefed
Last point. Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Lao all look different. I know I know, not to the average american. That is my main issue. It's disrespectful to the Asian race.
1 year agoby @masta-chiefedFlag
Masta_Chiefed
Furthermore, I'm supposed to believe the Chinese people are so dumb and ignorant they won't log onto the internet to see who was the original villain for this film?
1 year agoby @masta-chiefedFlag
Masta_Chiefed
@dreadpirateroberts And just so you know. Red Dawn was admittedly a propaganda tool for the Cold War. Kinda hard to miss that. it's part of the reason it was so controversial. If you don't know how fear/anxiety influences people, then I can't help you.
1 year agoby @masta-chiefedFlag
Masta_Chiefed
@dreadpirateroberts FYI. When WW3 happens. It will be China, not NK. NK is a blip on the f*cking radar compared to China. Seriously one strategic bombing campaign and NK is done.
This isn't 1985. Red Dawn in hindsight is unwatchable now. Because there is absolutely no way a small ground force of f*cking high school kids could ever do as much damage as we're led to believe.
Look at that cast photo. A bunch of kids in Northface holding machine guns. Real transcending. Hopefully they're on anti depressants too. We need those types of crazies fighting the North Koreans (LoL).
Did you read Ejk1's comment about the upgrade in military weaponry which really makes this story completely unbelievable?
1 year agoby @masta-chiefedFlag
DreadPirateRoberts
Sure it it is a lie. So what. Please point out the fear mongering Mr. Dictionary Man. Let me do it for you: Fear mongering is the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end.
Really?! He is trying influence the movie goer to some specific end through the use of fear?!
No. He is trying to make money. A movie with Americans blowing invading people up will likely make money. And China has been known to blacklist films and studios that portray them badly, and they want their money too. So they change the villains to the North Koreans since they HAVE NO MONEY and will not bother the bottom like with their protests in the least. That is all it is. Maximizing profit for this and future films from the studio.
So again, where is the fear mongering? And your boycott would cost at most $10 to the studio per film, and likely less since you weren't going to see those films anyway!
1 year agoby @dreadpiraterobertsFlag
Masta_Chiefed
@dreadpirateroberts Whip us into fear? Is this the 1950's? If you can't sense fear mongering when you see it, that's not my issue. How could it not be considered fear mongering? Really? Look that phrase up.
You do realize that whole explanation Vinson gave was basically a cop-out lie.
While I do enjoy all the "new" members mysteriously showing up the last day or so, I gotta say this is kinda pathetic.
1 year agoby @masta-chiefedFlag
DreadPirateRoberts
Fear mongering? Why? It's an action movie. Do you think they are actually trying to whip us up into fear of a North Korean invasion. What's to boycott?
1 year agoby @dreadpiraterobertsFlag
Masta_Chiefed
Here's a list of all Trip Vinson's upcoming film projects. Make sure to boycott.
Untitled Benson Lee Project (producer) (in production)
2011 Bobism (producer) (announced)
2011 Dan Mintner: Badass for Hire (producer) (announced)
2011 Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (producer) (post-production)
2011 What's Your Number? (producer) (completed)
2011 Red Dawn (producer) (completed)
1 year agoby @masta-chiefedFlag
Masta_Chiefed
F*cking fear mongering.
1 year agoby @masta-chiefedFlag
Sean Xu
Its simply business. They don't want to piss off 1.3 billion potential customers.
1 year agoby @Sean-XuFlag
Nautical
This is going to be just like Homefrunt. ... ha Korea.
1 year agoby @nautical05Flag
TheMime
hehehehe......nice
1 year agoby @themimeFlag
thedude-abides
Ah, at last. The answer to avoiding all-out nuclear war. Use actors from whatever country is currently our biggest threat. If only we could've thought of that during WW2. Oh, how pleased Goebbels would have been...
1 year agoby @thedude-abidesFlag
Diaigma
@dreadpirateroberts - China does have a wicked air force, though :P
1 year agoby @diaigmaFlag
Fat_Jesus
Oh yeah, f*ck the North Koreans. They would totally invade us.
...
1 year agoby @fat-jesusFlag
DreadPirateRoberts
Sorry, but this is just silly. Soviet Russia made some sort of sense in the original. China invading the US makes far less sense (they have far to much to lose financially and their military is NOT up to an invasion across the Pacific). North Korea makes NO SENSE at all. Them shipping a nuke over, sure. Them INVADING? No chance.
1 year agoby @dreadpiraterobertsFlag
The Dark Knight
Yeah China invading with their massive power is more believable
1 year agoby @thedarkknight23Flag
David-Dvd-1988
just to let people know i am irish from galway in the west but i dont know what the whole debate that broke out here about it is maybe because tomorrow is paddys day and everyone will claim to be irish.....anyways have no problem with them changing the villians from chinese to korean as long as the film is on par with the original and not some crap remake like so since!
1 year agoby @david-dvd-1988Flag
Diaigma
They may have secured an audience in China with this move, but in doing so, they just lost out on my movie-going dollars, effective immediately :P
1 year agoby @diaigmaFlag
Pjwolsker
they totally just f*cked this movie up now with the change
1 year agoby @pjwolskerFlag
Pjwolsker
wait theres a f*cking video game coming out where the north koreans invade the US. there going to say it way to similar to the game
1 year agoby @pjwolskerFlag
Mrtmcfly
Yeah, North Korea has the military strength and resources to invade and occupy the United States. That's believable. The reason why the original film worked is that the "Enemy" was a realistic one. They just dumped this one in the proverbial film waste basket of history. You'll see this one in the $2 bin at Savon a week after it comes out.
1 year agoby @mrtmcflyFlag
Marveldude12
WOLVERINES!
1 year agoby @marveldude12Flag
Seawolf63
@daveactor7 Actually, according to the article, "[giving] North Korea a much larger role in the coalition that invades the U.S.", I think we can assume there may be another country involved. Perhaps Venezuela? The Chavez regime isn't really a fan of the U.S. government, but it is anyone's guess. The first film had the Cubans assisting the Russians, I think there may have been a central American country involved as well, but I haven't seen the film for a very long time to recall if that is the case.
1 year agoby @seawolf63Flag
Pjwolsker
wouldnt that make things worse? North Korea hates us. China is our allies. this is just a movie though. no one should freak out about this
1 year agoby @pjwolskerFlag
Brian
Russians would have been so much better! 80s style!
1 year agoby @brianFlag
SonOfOne41
I loved the original and hope this doesn't be a low budget movie
1 year agoby @SonOfOne41Flag
SherlockHolmes2009
Its stupid to do it but still excited about it
1 year agoby @SherlockHolmes2009Flag