Kevin Spacey is set to star and executive produce along with David Fincher the "House of Cards" remake. Fincher will also direct the pilot, while Beau Willimon will write it and serve as executive producer. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kevin-spacey-teams-david-fincher-163870)
shareIn my opinion, it will be a well-made albeit generic tale of political ambition and greed set in the United States, so they could have just as well named it otherwise. No Thatcher to cast her shadow on the "pretenders to the throne", no King to create a constitutional crisis, no significant socio-economical setting to create atmosphere and give it a special tone. David Fincher is spectacular and Kevin Spacey is wondrous, but he is too charming to fly under the radar and lurk unobserved like Richardson's characterization of the role did. "House of Cards" is unique, because it was born in a climate quite different from the one today and though its remake could succeed, I don't think it could ever possibly rise to the unprecedented level of the 90's classic trilogy.
shareAgreed dmyriounis,
I'm sure it will be terrific and open to a wider audience but nothing can touch the original.
Excellent comment!
It is a rarity for a remake to excel.
Ian Richardson made the original 'hum'.
Way to jump to conclusions. Maybe you should have waited to see the actual show before commenting on it?
For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco
lol yeah what an idiot
shareFrom the way the series seems to be falling apart at this point, I think his/her comments were pretty prescient.
shareYour comment is spot on. Why do they insist on trying to remake that which is so good in the first place that no remake could do it justice. I remember sometime ago that Madonna was talking about remaking Casablanca!!!What a travesty that would have been
shareIt'll be probably be a typical defanged and santised American production like the tremendously popular US Office or the completely unpopular US Thick of It (though i'm led to believe there will be another try at that by HBO).
shareNoooooooooooo!
The original was perfect. Perfectly cast - Ian Richardson's performance was definitive, all of the rest of the cast was wonderful, with the marvelously underplayed Lady McB / Elizabeth by Diane Fletcher, perfect storytelling, outstanding pacing. To hand it over to a tedious (20 episodes???) American retelling is unthinkable. As the earlier commenter remarked: how will they create the drama of a call for a by-election, a constitutional crisis, and especially what we Americans tend to overlook, the incredible hubris and nerve required of FU to force the king to abdicate.
Just horrified by the thought of a remake. Look at the disastrous effort for "Life on Mars." Truly no comparison.
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You had to include FU in there, didn't you.
Now ask me how I really feel, I'm just here for the comments.
Worse--they'll give it a happy ending where Spacey realizes the error of his ways and becomes a good man through virtuous acts.
Don't forget what Hollywood did to The Vanishing. Ug.
I watched the first Season of the Netflix (American) House of Cards. 13 episodes. I really doubt that Spacey's Francis Underwood will end up redeeming himself. I like the American version. I like the sexual intrigue in the American version provided by Kristen Connolly and Kate Mara. Enjoy both the original HOC and the remake very much.
shareI enjoyed them both too!
sharesame here. just finished watching the entire 1st series of the US version and thought it was superb. in fact, it was so good, it nudged me to re-watch the UK version - I saw that when it first came out on BBC TV. Both are brilliant. There's a richard III aspect to ian richardsons performance in the UK version that is brilliant. I liked that the US version didn't try to emulate that but did retain a few aspects..such as the "asides" - where Spaceys Character would talk directly to the viewer.
Enjoyed both immensely and look forward to the second series of the US version.
I know its been years since your comment was posted but I have watched the US version of the series, the first season and so far I'm not liking it. I was talking to my sister who told to watch the British version which she thought was superior. So I did. Don't get me wrong, I love Kevin Spacey and he is an amazing actor. But he can't hold a candle to Ian Richardson portrayal and the deviousness of his character. Even the 4th walls gave chills down my spine (talking directly to the camera). I never got that with Kevin Spacey, his seemed more like wink, wink. I was little taken aback by the quality of the film. It seemed like something from the 60's. That tape recorder he used also seemed it came from the 60's. They didn't have cassette tape in the UK in 1990? It made it look dated.
I'm genuinely disappointed with Hollywood. They cannot come up with new material and have to steal series, concepts and ideas from other countries.
"They cannot come up with new material and have to steal series, concepts and ideas from other countries." Wrong, eileen-guthrie555 . They purchase the rights to a remake, and pay quite a lot of money to do so. Netflix spent $100 million on the first series of House of Cards, and you could see it all ended up on the screen. The American version is different, not as humorous as the British, Underwood's wife has a much larger role, and it is darker in tone, but it is a must watch (and listen) series. Surprisingly, for an American show it is remarkably free of the cliches. No car chases, no fist fights every 20 minutes, no banal dialog, and no token casting - every character is essentially integral to the plot. After watching the US HOC, I will never see a political speech or rally in the same light again, I will always wonder what was the quid pro quo, who traded what, who got pushed out and resigned 'to spend more time with the family'.
shareI enjoyed the US version initially, but I think it began to run out of steam. The emphasis is now too much on the wife, probably because the writers have run out of ways to portray a purely evil character week in and week out over the course of several years, so they have to dilute Underwood a bit by focusing elsewhere and also by 'softening' him a bit. Both tactics lessen the character; it would have been smarter to put a finite run on the US series, just as the British one did. Of course, part of the reason for that was the fact that Ian Richardson had good enough actor's intuition to know when enough was enough; he only agreed to do the third series if Urquhart were killed off at the end, because although he said he found the character fascinating to play, he'd reached a point where he felt nothing much more could be done with him. In the US, a money-making hit isn't going to be allowed to be pulled because the star feels that way, assuming that Spacey even does. So every trick will be pulled out of the hat to keep it going.
I don't really feel the US version is any darker in tone either. It's more violent in sporadic moments, not unusual for an American reimaging of the original, and the humor is, to my way of thinking, used less successfully to underscore just how dark is the material it's being employed to joke about. It wasn't a bad effort as far as most of these types of redos tend to go, but again, I think that being drawn out for too long and the dilution of the central character are the US version's Achilles heel and are sooner or later going to do this version in.
Kevin Spacey is set to star and executive produce along with David Fincher the "House of Cards" remake