A Japanese remake of Alexander Payne's "Sideways"?

by Chris MaGee

Us Japanese film bloggers get pretty indignant when we hear of Hollywood making one ill-advised remake after another. A live action "Ghost in the Shell"? Terrible! "Rashomon"? Heresy! "Detroit Metal City"? Why?! But it seems like the Japanese film industry isn't immune to the pointless remake bug. Case in point: "Sideways", the quirky 2004 comic drama by "Election" and "About Schmidt" director Alexander Payne.

According to a reprt posted at Tokyograph this morning Fuji TV and 20th Century Fox have joined forces and are planning to fly over Fumiyo Kohinata, Katsuhisa Namase, Rinko Kikuchi, and Kyoka Suzuki to the U.S. to remake the film for Japanese audiences. Newbie director Cellin Gluck has been tagged to helm the film.

Sankei Sports posted the above pick of the cast of what I am assuming will be called "シデワス" and it just looks wrong. Where's the angst? The pathos? The alcoholism? "Kono wainu wa osihi ne! Kampai!" That's all that pic is saying to me, but we'll have to wait until fall 2009 to see just how bad this one will be.