The Hollywood Meme

Transnational Adaptations in World Cinema

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by Iain Robert Smith

Type: Studies
Subject: Countries > World
Keywords: remake, globalization
Publishing date: 2016
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 192 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-0-7486-7746-7

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Book Presentation:
The first book to interrogate the transnational adaptations of Hollywood films

Did you know that a Turkish remake of The Exorcist replaced the Catholicism with Islam? Or that James Bond and Batman team up together in the 1966 Filipino film James Batman? Or that a Bollywood remake of Memento has become one of the biggest box-office successes in India of all time?

The Hollywood Meme is the first comprehensive study of the transnational adaptations of Hollywood movies that have appeared throughout world cinema. With case studies from the film industries of Turkey, India and the Philippines, Iain Robert Smith shows how reworked versions of Hollywood blockbusters like E.T., The Godfather, Spider-man and Star Wars can complicate prevailing accounts of Hollywood’s global impact, and help provide a new model for interrogating transnational flows and exchanges.

Key Features
• The first academic work to examine the global phenomenon of transnational adaptations of Hollywood
• Provides a historical introduction to the relationship between Hollywood and the popular film industries of Turkey, the Philippines and India
• Offers a new methodology for studying transnational adaptations building upon Richard Dawkins’ concept of the ‘meme’Case Studies Include:
• Four from Turkey that rework Spiderman, Star Trek, The Exorcist and Star Wars
• Four from the Philippines that rework The Six Million Dollar Man, James Bond, Batman and Wonder Woman
• Four from India that rework E.T., The Godfather, Three Men and a Baby and Memento

About the Author:
Iain Robert Smith is Lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London. He is author of The Hollywood Meme: Transnational Adaptations in World Cinema (Edinburgh UP, 2016) and co-editor of Media Across Borders (2016). He is co-chair of the SCMS Transnational Cinemas Scholarly Interest Group, and co-investigator on the AHRC-funded research network Media Across Borders.

Press Reviews:
In its illuminating look at adaptations, copies, and remakes of Hollywood texts in the popular film industries of Turkey, the Philippines, and India, Smith¹s book challenges its readers to reconsider preconceived notions of how cultural hegemonies operate, arguing for and unearthing more nuanced and reciprocal forms of interaction and cross-fertilisation between Hollywood and global film culture. Sharply argued and offering intriguing insights into the stranger realms of cultural appropriation, this book is a delight to read and an important intervention into popular genre studies and studies of transnational practices in world cinema.– Professor Tim Bergfelder, University of Southampton

An interesting read for academics working in (popular) genre studies, studies of transnational adaptations and remake studies, as well as for people who want to know more about the Bollywood remake of ‘Memento’, or the teaming up of James Bond and Batman in the Filipino ‘James Batman’.– Eduard Cuelenaere, Ghent University, Communications

Smith’s histories should provide ample inspiration for new theoretical and national border and boundary crossings, and for new forms of creative and hybrid thinking. Like any exemplary franchise instalment, Smith’s book works just as well in anticipation as it does in execution, hopefully with more histories, more sequels, more spinoffs, and more extensions coming soon.– Kyle Meikle, SCREEN

See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press

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