Hollywood Remakes of Iconic British Films: Class, Gender and Stardom

This is the first book-length study to address film remaking from a unique perspective of a cross-cultural exchange between two countries which not only share a language but also a history of film cooperation. It examines a selection of cult and classic British titles made at the time of Hollywood’s active involvement in the domestic film production, with case studies from a number of genres. The book investigates the ways in which these ’60s and early ’70s films are remade by Hollywood in the new millennium by focusing in particular on how class and gender representations are updated to accommodate for cultural, societal and technological transformations. It shows a tendency for remakes to revise old power dynamics by means of gender reversal and to replace class conflicts with sex wars. Since all the British originals feature iconic British actors, analysing their Hollywood alter-egos becomes another important indicator of adaptation strategies where casting American or British actors determines the remake’s gender politics and genre markers.

Agnieszka Rasmus is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Studies in Drama, Theatre and Film, University of Lódź, Poland. She is the author of Filming Shakespeare, from Metatheatre to Metacinema (2008) and numerous articles on film remakes and adaptations.