Remake Man

In a telling commentary that combines capitalism in Hollywood with the American Dream, a contributor to the New Yorker magazine, Tad Friend, takes the reader through the making of Roy Lee as the "remake king." Lee, a Korean-American, whose parents moved from South Korea to the United States in the late 1960s, has carved out a unique role for himself in Hollywood: It is one that combines the unexpected success of an "obsessive video store clerk" with that of the "hard nosed immigrant who makes it big in Hollywood." Lee acts as the middleman between distributors of Asian films produced in East Asia and Hollywood studios that wish to acquire remake rights of popular Asian films. In the last few years, Asian cinema has become increasingly popular in the United States and Lee’s fascinating success story, of a son of middle class Asian immigrants making it big in America, is also the story of the globalization of Asian cinema. More significantly, however, it is yet another story of a heartless Hollywood: a place where different worlds meet and dreams come true; yet the road to the top is paved with often vicious and cutthroat actions and decisions. – YaleGlobal