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Foreign Remake

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Don't forget: up north Latino Is Brown.
"Now, as you can imagine, there's a problem in properly translating a French comedy into American. The sense of humor's different. The point of view. Words always mean something else. So I start with a quick, literal translation. Then I adapt the dialogue, make it into the American equivalent."
— Abe Burrows, on Cactus Flower

Say you're a writer/director who has managed to make a good film outside of the Hollywood system. Congratulations! Hollywood is so impressed with your movie that they want make it for themselves and change everything. You say yes, and heck, they might even let you direct it, but don't hold your breath. First off, your script needs a total rewrite to massage out all the Values Dissonance. Then all your unknown actors are swapped out for Hollywood stars. The setting will probably get changed, and production values get upgraded by a factor of ten. The resulting Foreign Remake might turn out better or worse than the original depending on the minds at work.

OR:

Say you're a Bollywood veteran who is spending a quiet evening on the internet. Suddenly you stumble across the synopsis for a Hollywood movie that looks suspiciously like the popular film you made three years ago. In fact, it's the exact same premise. And it was released to theaters a year ago. Why haven't you heard anything about this until now? After watching the DVD, you discover that it's a garbled version of your film, without the singing and dancing, and the walk in the rain is replaced with a sex scene. What the hell?

Ultimately, whenever something is remade in a different country, it's a foreign remake. Hollywood and Bollywood tend to get the most attention for theirs, but it happens all over. India, in fact, often does this internally: because different parts of India have different official languages, successful movies in one language will often be remade in one or several other languages, for the benefit of a different audience.

Related to The Remake and Self-Remake.

Common Tropes:

Compare Disneyfication. See also Transatlantic Equivalent, which is exclusive to television.

Contrast with Canada Does Not Exist, where by design or by imposition, Canadians make their own foreign remakes without making a domestic original first.

Listed in alphabetical order with American release name and original name (plus years and country of origin for the original ones)

    open/close all folders 

    American remakes of foreign films 

    Non-American foreign film remakes 
  • 3 Idiots (Indian, 2009) — Nanban (Sri Lankan, 2012) — 3 Idiotas (Mexican, 2017).
  • 12 Angry Men (USA, 1957) — 12 (Russia, 2007).
  • 200 Pounds Beauty (South Korea, 2006) — 200 Pounds Beauty (Vietnam, 2017) — 200 Pounds Beauty (Indonesia, 2023)
  • Aatishbaaz, Agneepath, and Saathi — Scarface (1983)
  • Bullet For Hire (Hong Kong) — Scarface (1983)
  • Ajnabee (Bollywood) — Consenting Adults (American).
  • The Anthropophagus Beast (Italian) — Anthropophagous 2000 (German).
  • Bachke Rehna Re Baba — Heartbreakers
  • Bells Are Ringing was remade for German television as Hallo - Mr. Moss.
  • A Better Tomorrow (Hong Kong, 1986) — A Better Tomorrow (South Korea, 2010)
  • The Hindi Bhool Bhulaiyaa, a remake of the Tamil and Telugu Chandramukhi, which was a remake of the Kannada Apthamitra...which was a remake of the Malayalee Manichitratazadu. Apparently, there's another remake in Bengali called ''Rajmohol". And yes, all of those are from the same country.
  • Norwegian film The Bus from 1961 was remade for a Danish audience in 1963, essentially using the same script, but bowdlerized it to smooth out some plot points and tie up some loose threads.
  • Chloe — Nathalie...
  • Commando (USA, 1985) — День Д (D-Day) (Russia, 2008)
  • Compulsion (Canada, 2013) — 301, 302 (South Korea, 1995)
  • Cube (Canada, 1997) — Cube (Japan, 2021)
  • Daraar, Agnisakshi and Yaraana — Sleeping with the Enemy
  • Les Diaboliques is remade as HEX in Hong Kong, with a whole lot of Gorn and Mind Screw added.
  • Italian È già ieri (It's Already Yesterday) — Groundhog Day
  • Ek Ajnabee — Man on Fire
  • Ek The Power Of One (Hindi), a remake of the Telugu assassin flick Athadu.
  • Final Cut is the French remake of the Japanese horror comedy One Cut of the Dead (One actress of the original film plays in it).
  • A Fistful of Dollars (Italy/Spain, 1964) — Yojimbo (Japan, 1961). The story was plagiarized and Kurosawa had to sue for royalties.
  • Flyme To Polaris — a Hong Kong remake of Heaven Can Wait (1978). It also took a few cues from Ghost (1990).
  • ‘’Forrest Gump’’ (USA,1994) - ‘’Laal Singh Chaddha’’ (India,2022)
  • Ghajini — Memento
  • Ghost: I Want to Hold You in My Arms Again - Japanese-Korean version remake of Ghost (1990) with a Gender Flip thrown in for some originality.
  • Ghulam — On the Waterfront
  • God Tussi Great Ho — Bruce Almighty
  • Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom/The Good, The Bad, The Weird — Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo
  • A Hard Day (South Korea, 2014) — Peace Breaker (China, 2017) — A Hard Day (Philippines, 2021) — Restless (France, 2022) — Hard Days (Japan, 2023)
  • Taken Serial Escalation by High School Musical—the book Battle of the Bands was adapted three times in Latin America—once each in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil. The latter two count as this.
  • Home Run (Singapore) — Children of Heaven (Iran)
  • The Housemaid (South Korea, 2010)note  — The Housemaid (Philippines, 2021)
  • If.... (technically an American production, but with a largely British cast, crew and setting), based on the French short film Zéro de conduite.
  • Jab We Met (India, 2007) — Elizabethtown (2005)
  • Jindabyne (Australian) — Short Cuts (American), though more accurately they're both adaptations of the short story So Much Water So Close to Home.
  • Kita Kita (Philippines, 2017) — Cinta Itu Buta (Indonesia, 2019)
  • Last Summer (2023) — French remake of the 2019 Danish film Dronningen.
  • Main Aisa Hi Hoon (2005), Deiva Thirumagal (2011) - i am sam.
  • Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya (2005) is a Bollywood remake of Cactus Flower. (The play the American movie is based on was itself an Americanized version of a French farce.)
  • Mean Machine — The Longest Yard: A British remake of the 1973 American film (the Sandler remake came out in 05), substituting football for football.
  • Miracle in Cell No. 7 (South Korea, 2013) — Pushpaka Vimana (India, 2017) — Koğuştaki Mucize (Turkey, October 2019) — Miracle in Cell No. 7 (Philippines, December 2019) — Miracle in Cell No. 7 (Indonesia, September 2022)
  • Miss Granny (South Korea, 2014) — 20 Once Again (China, January 2015) — Sweet 20 (Vietnam, December 2015) — Sing MY Life (Japan, April 2016) — Suddenly 20 (Thailand, November 2016) — Sweet 20 (Indonesia, 2017) — Miss Granny (Philippines, 2018) — Oh! Baby (India, 2019) — When I Am Young (Mexico, 2022).
  • Mrs. Doubtfire, 1993 — Chaachi 420 (India, 2002)
  • The Negotiation (South Korea, 2018) — Godse (India, 2022)
  • No Manches Frida (Mexico 2016) — Fack ju Göhte (Germany 2013) aka Suck Me Shakespeer (international title)
  • O stragalistis tis sygrou is apparently a Greek remake of Maniac! (1980).
  • Mutant Sea Monster is a Chinese DTV remake of Sharktopus incredibly enough.
  • Danish Olsen-banden remade in Norway as Olsen-banden and in Sweden as Jönssonligan.
  • The 2016 Italian film Perfect Strangers entered the Guinness Book of Records for being the film with the most remakes ever, with a total of 24 remakes in such diverse countries as Greece, Spain, Turkey, France, Poland, South Korea, China, India, Mexico, Germany and Hungary among the others. There's also talks of an American remake as well, plus some theater plays based on it.
  • Pusher, the influential Danish crime thriller, was remade in Britain in 2012 under the same name. The actor playing the Serbian villain Milo reprises his role, as he is a Ruthless Foreign Gangster in both settings.
  • The Kinji Fukasaku film Shogun's Samurai is remade by Hong Kong's Golden Harvest as Burning Ambition, with a Setting Update from ancient Japan to 1980s Hong Kong.
  • Rafoo Chakkar — Some Like It Hot — Fanfaren der liebe — Fanfares d'Amour... making this a foreign remake of a foreign remake of a foreign remake.
  • The Ring Virus (1999) — A Korean remake of Japanese Ringu (1998).
  • Saathiya (Hindi) — "Alaipayuthey'' (Tamil). Even the musical numbers were the same.
  • Saidoweizu (2009) — Sideways (2004): A Japanese remake, with the wine-country locale changed from Santa Barbara to Napa.
  • Satte Pe Satta — Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
  • Sauda and Judaai — Indecent Proposal
  • Silent Night, Bloody Night: The Homecoming (UK, 2013) — Silent Night, Bloody Night (US, 1974)
  • A Simple Noodle Story — Blood Simple
  • Scorpio Nights I (Philippines, 1985) — Summertime'' (South Korea, 2001)
  • Sunday (Hindi) — Anukokunda Oka Roju (Telugu)
  • Sunny (2011, South Korea) — Go Go Sisters (2018, Vietnam) — Sunny: Strong Mind Strong Love (2018, Japan) — Glorious Days (2019, Indonesia) — Sunny Sisters (2021, China) — Sunny (2024, Philippines)
  • Tees Maar Khan - After The Fox
  • Hideo Gosha's chanbara classic, Three Outlaw Samurai, was remade as a wuxia by Shaw Brothers, titled The Magnificent Trio
  • Unforgiven (2011) — Japanese remake of Unforgiven
  • Wo Zhi Nü Ren Xin — What Women Want
  • Witness was remade as Paap (Sin) in Bollywood and as Wild Chase (starring Chow Yun-fat) in Hong Kong.
  • Yaraana (India (Bollywood, specifically), 1995) — Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
  • Zinda — Oldboy (2003)
  • Er ist wieder da (Germany, 2015), from the book of the same name (meaning "He's back"), was remade in Italy in 2018 with Sono tornato ("I'm back"). The main difference is that in the German film Adolf Hitler is the one who's back, while in the Italian one it's Benito Mussolini.
  • Other:
    • In the 70's and 80's, Turkish filmmakers had this strange habit of doing remakes of blockbuster movies like Star Wars, Superman and The Exorcist on a budget of about $5 (that's $5 total, not each). Contrary to popular belief, the real movies were, in fact, distributed in Turkey, so it's a mystery as to why these were even made. Even more vexingly, some of them borrow footage and music from the originals, which could have gotten them in the same legal trouble as simply distributing bootleg copies of the real thing.
    • The British film studio Hammer Film Productions made its name by remaking many of Universal Pictures' classic horror films from the '30s and '40s.
  • Brazilian films De Pernas Pro Ar and O Candidato Honesto both received Korean remakes, respectively titled Casa Amor: Exclusive for Ladies and Honest Candidate. The latter is notable in that it Gender Flips the main character.
  • The Wild Geese (British) is remade in the 80s by Shaw Brothers, as Mercenaries from Hong Kong. With certain characters getting a Gender Flip treatment and the Big Bad going through a massive Adaptational Villainy note 

    Live-Action TV 
  • 24 (USA) — 24 (India). Indian actor/producer Anil Kapoor joined the cast of the original in Season 8 and thought it would work well in his home country, so he developed an adaptation and played the lead role.
  • 49 Days (South Korea) — Pure Love (Philippines)
  • Äkta Människor (Real Humans) (Sweden) — Humans (Britain)
  • Being Human, a British comedy/drama/horror TV show, received an American remake on Syfy.
  • Birds of a Feather (UK) — Stand By Your Man (US), starring Rosie O'Donnell.
  • Breaking Bad (USA) — Metástasis, set in Colombia.
  • Broadchurch (UK) — Gracepoint (USA); bonus points for David Tennant playing the lead role in both shows.
  • The Bridge (2011) (DK/SE) — The Bridge (US/MX) — The Tunnel (UK/FR) — The Bridge (EE/RU) — The Bridge (MY/SG) - Der Pass (DE/AT)
  • Cheers (US) — Cheers (Spain); best remembered for epically flopping and a subsequent Drawing Board Hiatus of which nothing came ultimately.
  • Clan (Belgium) — Bad Sisters (Ireland)
  • Cold Case (USA) — Cold Case: Shinjitsu no Tobira (Japan). Every single episode is practically a scene-for-scene remake of episodes taken from the original.
  • Criminal Minds — the South Korean remake of the same name.
  • Der Tatortreiniger has been remade in the UK as The Cleaner (UK)
  • Descendants of the Sun (South Korea, 2016) - the Vietnamese (2019) and Philippine (2020) remakes of the same name.
  • Desperate Housewives received several Latin American remakes.
  • Doctor Foster (UK, 2015) — Infidèlenote  (France, 2019), Скажи правдуnote  (Russia, 2019), Out of Love (India, 2019-2021), The World of the Married (South Korea, 2020), Sadakatsiznote  (Turkey, 2020-present), The Broken Marriage Vow (Philippines, 2022), Menduanote  (Indonesia, 2022), The Betrayal (Thailand, TBA).
  • Entourage — the South Korean remake of the same name.
  • Escouade Nine Nine — the French Canadian remake of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
  • Euphoria (Israel) — Euphoria (USA)
  • Everybody Loves Raymond has been remade in Russia as Voroniny.
  • Fated to Love You (Taiwan, 2008) — Fated to Love You/You Are My Destiny (South Korea, 2014) — You Are My Destiny (Thailand, 2017) — Fated to Love You —- (Cambodia, 2019) — You Are My Destiny (Japan, February 2020) — You Are My Destiny (China, 2020)
  • American producers attempted on several different occasions to adapt Fawlty Towers, the Greatest Sitcom Ever, for American audiences, always failing spectacularly. In order, these attempts were:
    • Chateau Snavely, starring Harvey Korman and Betty White, a failed pilot from 1978 (before the completion of the second series of the original program). Changed the setting to a highway motel, but otherwise a relatively faithful adaptation. According to John Cleese, this was actually a weakness, as in his opinion Korman and White failed to commit to the edgy material.
    • Amanda's (also called Amanda's by the Sea) - starring Bea Arthur (yes, another Golden Girl) as Amanda Cartwright, sometimes described as a distaff Basil Fawlty but more accurately a Composite Character of both Basil and Sybil (Although in effect, Bea Arthur was basically playing her usual "Bea Arthur" type - think Maude Findlay or Dorothy Zbornak running a hotel. Cleese himself commented in a 2009 interview that "they took Basil and Sybil's lines and gave them all to Bea Arthur".) Set on the California coast. Probably the most notorious adaptation, it ran as a midseason replacement in 1983. 13 episodes were produced, but only ten aired.
    • Payne - starring and executive produced by John Larroquette as Royal Payne. Set on the California coast. The best-reviewed adaptation (and the only one creator Cleese liked) but failed to gain an audience. Ran as a midseason replacement in 1999; nine episodes were produced but only eight aired.
    • In addition to these direct remakes, popular legend has it that Cheers was conceived as a loose remake of Fawlty Towers. What is known is that the show was originally set at a hotel before the creators noticed most of their story ideas centered on the hotel bar and changed the setting accordingly. Fittingly, Cleese would make a guest appearance on Cheers, and win an Emmy for it.
  • George & Mildred — The Ropers. Unlike George and Mildred, producers decided to launch The Ropers while its parent series (Three's Company) was still running, much to the dismay of series star Norman Fell, who didn't want to leave an established hit to star in a show that might not make it. (His co-star Audra Lindley, by contrast, was all for a spin-off.) It was agreed that if the new show was cancelled during its first season, they would be allowed to return to Three's Company - The Ropers premiered midseason, was renewed for a second, and promptly bombed in its new timeslot and was swiftly cancelled.
  • Ghosts (UK) — Ghosts (US)
  • Go Princess Go (China, 2015) — Mr. Queen (South Korea, 2020)
  • The Golden Girls (USA) — Las chicas de oro (Spain); didn't make it past its first season despite having revered actresses Alicia Hermida, Concha Velasco, Carmen Maura and Lola Herrera as the four Golden Girls. And Brighton Belles (UK) was also a flop. With the series being so poorly received (by critics and audiences) that ITV pulled it after six episodes, later burning off the remaining episodes.
  • The Good Doctor (USA) from Good Doctor (S. Korea) — the similarities are in the new surgeon having autism and the tensions in authority.
  • The Disney Channel sitcom Good Luck Charlie has been remade into Best of Luck Nikki by Disney Channel India. Basically, it's just a Cultural Translation of the original, with not much difference from the original plots.
  • The Good Wife (USA, 2009) — the South Korean remake of the same name (2016).
  • Goong (South Korea, 2006) — Princess Hours (Thailand, 2017)
  • Gossip Girl (USA) — Although China was the first to announce its version, Mexico was quicker out of the box.
  • Grounded for Life (USA) — Remade in the UK In With The Flynns
  • Hancock's Half Hour got a Norwegian remake called Fleknes Fataliteter, which started out directly translating Hancock episodes, before gradually developing Marve Fleknes into a notably different character to Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock. When Hancock writers Galton and Simpson visited Scandinavia, they were delighted to find that nobody could believe they were Fleknes's creators, even second-hand, because he was just so Norwegian.
  • House of Cards (UK) (1990) — House of Cards (US) (2013)
  • How I Met Your Mother has a Russian adaptation. Its version of Robin has Let’s Go to the Mall as her ringtone.
  • Inspector Rex (Austria) — Hudson and Rex (Canada)
  • Iron Chef (Japan) got no fewer than five remakes in the States—the failed Iron Chef USA, the far more successful Iron Chef America (which ran for more than twice as long as the original Japanese series), the limited-run The Next Iron Chef, and the short-lived Iron Chef Gauntlet and Iron Chef Showdown. It also got versions in Indonesia (twice), Israel, the UK, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Canada, with varying levels of success.
  • Jessie (USA) — Oye, Jassie! (India)
  • Jane the Virgin (Venezuela, 2002) — Ek Ladki Anjaani Si (India, 2006) — Majika (Poland, 2010) — Jane the Virgin (USA, 2014) — Life is Full of Miracles (Turkey, 2015) — Parthena Zoi (Greece, 2017) — Bat-El the Virgin (Israel, 2019) — Woo-ri the Virgin (South Korea, 2023) — Jane the Virgin (Mexico, 2024)
  • Julie and the Phantoms is a remake of short-lived Brazilian show Julie e os Fantasmas, following the same basic premise as the original but taking a massive amount of liberties.
  • Kath & Kim (Australia) received an American remake.
  • Kenny vs. Spenny inspired a slew of new male versus shows across the world, some so blatant they even steal the original opening and alter it to include the faces of the new competitors, keeping everything else the same. Others straight up copy the original competition ideas, failing to realize it was more about the unique dynamic between Kenny and Spenny that made the series popular, not so much the competitions themselves.
  • The 2011 telenovela La reina del sur was remade into English as Queen of the South in 2016. La Reina Del Sur aired in America but it is in Spanish. The remake simply has everyone speak English except for occasions of subtitled Spanish.
  • Lalola (Argentina) — Remade in Belgium, Chile, Greece, India, Indonesia, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey and Vietnam. A pilot for an American remake was made for Fox in 2008 but was not picked up.
  • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver led HBO Latin America to greenlight a local version in Brazil, Greg News com Gregório Duvivier. In one of the first episodes Duvivier mocked the situation saying "Yes, I am the Ratatoing of John Oliver".
  • Law & Order has British and (premiered in 2012) South African remakes, Law & Order: Criminal Intent has remakes in France and Russia, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has a Russian remake.
  • Life on Mars (UK) — Life on Mars (US) — La Chica de Ayer (Spain) — The Dark Side of the Moon (Russia) — World Under Your Head (Czech Republic) — Life on Mars (South Korea)
  • Los Simuladores (Argentina) — Remade in Mexico, Spain, Chile and Russia.
  • Man About the House — Three's Company
  • María la del barrio (Mexico, 1995) — Maria la del Barrio (Philippines, 2011)
  • Marimar (Mexico, 1994) — Marimar (Philippines, 2007) — Marimar (Philippines, 2015)
  • Among all of the remakes of Married... with Children, the Russian one is notable because not only the entire show was remade (except for some of the less good episodes and some that couldn't be remade for various reasons), but the show later continued with completely new episodes, some of which are co-written by writers from the original show's staff.
  • Miranda (2009) (UK) was remade as Call Me Kat in the States. The main difference between the two is that the title character, a thirtysomething single woman on both sides of The Pond, ran a joke shop in the former and a cat café in the latter.
  • Money Heist (Spain) has a Korean remake in Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area.
  • Murder In Successville (UK, 2015) — Murderville (US, 2022).
  • My Lovely Sam-soon (South Korea, 2005) — Ako si Kim Samsoon (Philippine, 2008) — My Name is Bussaba (Thailand, 2020).
  • The Nanny has been remade a lot
  • Nurse Jackie — Charlie (Netherlands)
  • El Ministerio del Tiempo (Spain) — Ministério do Tempo (Portugal), with remake rights also sold to China, France, Germany and Italy.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 (USA) — Project Popcorn (Russia) note 
  • The O.C. is got a remake in Turkey, called Medcezir.
  • The Office (UK) — The Office (US), Stromberg (Germany) and Kontoret (Sweden). Notably, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant asked that each new version in another country follow the same plot of at least the first three episodes.
  • Orphan Black was remade in Japan as Orphan Black: 7 Genes which premiered barely four months after the original's Grand Finale.
  • Outrageous Fortune has gotten two remakes: A UK remake with Honest in 2008 and a US remake titled Scoundrels in 2010, with both only lasting one season.
  • Overspel (Adultery) (Holland) was remade as Betrayal (USA). According to an LA Times article about how shows pick titles (whether they're short ones like Scandal or quirky ones like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo), execs went with "Betrayal" over "Adultery" due to fears that female viewers would get turned-off by the latter while the former sounds more enticing, and plot-wise there's many ways to betray someone besides adultery).
  • Prison Break has been remade in Russia, lasting for 2 seasons.
  • Pul Hauseu (South Korea, 2004) — Full House (Philippines, 2009) — Ngôi nhà hạnh phúc (Vietnam, 2009) — Full House (Thailand, 2014) — Full House (Cambodia, 2014) — İlişki Durumu: Karışık (Turkey, 2015) — Yeh Raha Dil (Pakistan, 2017) — MY Fullhouse: Alamatnya Cinta (Malaysia, 2018) — Midsummer Is Full of Love (China, 2020).
  • Reality show Queer Eye (2018) led to foreign remakes Queer Eye Germany and Queer Eye Brazil, both of which were also released internationally by Netflix.
  • Riget (Denmark) was remade in the USA as Kingdom Hospital.
  • Robin's Nest — Three's A Crowd
  • Rosalinda (Mexico, 1999) — Rosalinda (Philippines, 2009)
  • RuPaul's Drag Race has spawned remakes in (as of 2021) Chile, Thailand, the United Kingdom (RuPaul's Drag Race UK), Canada, Holland, Australia/New Zealand, and Spain. Most of these shows are hosted by their country's own drag superstar, though Drag Race UK and Down Under are hosted by RuPaul himself.
  • Scarlet Heart (Chinese; 2011) -> Moon Lovers (South Korean; 2016)
  • Senora Maestra (Argentina; 1966) -> Carrusel (Mexico; 1989) -> Vivan Los Ninos (Mexico; 2002)-> Carrossel (Brazil; 2012).
  • Shameless (UK) (2004) — Shameless (US) (2011)
  • Skins - and the short-lived American remake of the same name.
  • So You Think You Can Dance has spun into several countries such as Canada, Australia, Germany, the UK, Israel...
  • Spitting Image had at least Spanish, Portuguese, French and Russian follow-ups. It helps politicians are laughable everywhere. There was also an attempt to bring it to the US during the Reagan years. Several specials were aired, but the show never caught on.
  • Steptoe and Son — Sanford and Son
  • The Suite Life of Zack & Cody — The Suite Life of Karan and Kabir (India)
  • Suits - the South Korean remake of the same name.
    • Also received a Japanese remake in 2018.
  • That '70s Show — Days Like These (UK) and Mis Años Grossos (Chile), the latter based on The '80s version of Chile instead of The '70s.
  • Till Death Us Do Part (GB) — All in the Family (USA), Ein Herz und eine Seele (Germany) and Kingswood Country (Australia).
  • The Tomorrow People (UK, 1970s/1990s) — The Tomorrow People (US, 2013)
  • Top Gear (UK) begat Top Gear Australia, Top Gear Russia, Top Gear (US), and Top Gear Korea.
  • Who's the Boss? received several foreign remakes.
  • Yo soy Betty, la fea has migrated up many South American countries and to Israel, all the way to the US (Ugly Betty). Later, it even got to Russia and the rest of the CIS, where fans are convinced that it is a re-make of an original ''American'' show. Ugly Betty is the inspiration for a Bosnian variant, and possibly an Arabic version as well. There was also a quite successful German adaptation. A Czech version Ugly Katka also exists.
  • Other:
    • Swedes are quite happy to remake both British and American shows now and then, despite the fact that subtitles are the norm and American and British shows popular. Examples include:
    • The Power Rangers franchise (American-produced, but filmed in New Zealand since Power Rangers Ninja Storm) is officially viewed as a "remake" of the Japanese Super Sentai franchise. Each Power Rangers season imports the action footage from a corresponding Super Sentai series (since the heroes' identities are concealed in their full body suits) and films new scenes around them featuring English-speaking actors. This began a minor trend of "remaking" Japanese tokusatsu shows for American audiences using the same method.
    • Oddly enough, just like the Good Luck Charlie and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody examples, Disney Channel India did also did their own Shake it Up, but replacing the main characters from girls to boys!
    • Most Korean dramas will get a Filipino remake if the original was popular there. Examples include My Girl, Only You, Green Rose and recently, Temptation of Wife.
    • Name any popular Telenovela, and there surely will have a couple of foreign remakes at least. The most famous one is El Derecho De Nacer, born in Cuba and remade for radio and TV twice by decade since The '50s. Mexico, being the Hollywood of Soap Operas, makes regionalized remakes of every Colombian and Argentinian popular soap since the Nineties.
      • Chile also have various notable Telenovelas being remade mostly in Mexico, like La madrastra, being made originally in Chile in 1981 with the Mexican 2005 remake as the most known version and the page made for TV Tropes.
    • The Joulukalenteri (Finland, 1997) — The Julekalender (Norway, 1994) — The Julekalender (Denmark, 1991)note 
  • The Israeli sitcom Traffic Light was adapted unsuccessfully in the US and successfully in Russia.
  • The Nickelodeon LatAm Teen Drama Grachi gets one for the US: Every Witch Way, also by Nickelodeon.
    • Likewise, the Nickelodeon Latin drama Toni, la Chef gets a US version, Talia in the Kitchen.
    • Nick does it again the third time- the Colombian Yo Soy Franky (also from Nick LatAm) is now the US I Am Frankie.
  • QI — Intresse Klubben
  • Ana Polo Rules is an English language remake of the Spanish court show Caso Cerrado. Both shows are American but Ana Maria Polo is bilingual.
  • It's Always Sunny in Moscow, the Russian version of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
  • The Golden Girls was remade and aired in the Netherlands three decades after the original show.
  • Haft Sang, the Iranian version of Modern Family, albeit with changes - the same-sex relationship between Cam and Mitchell was replaced by a heterosexual relationship, Haley's character is replaced by a teenage boy, and her boyfriend Dylan is replaced by the teenage boy's close friend.
  • Idol x Warrior Miracle Tunes! got an Italian/Spanish co-produced remake in 2018.
  • Barney & Friends:
    • In Israel, Barney & Friends was remade under the title Barney's Friends.
    • The show was also remade in Korea under its original title.
  • Designated Survivor (USA, 2016) — Designated Survivor: 60 Days (South Korea, 2019).
  • Sin tetas no hay paraíso (Colombia):
    • Remade in Spain as Sin tetas no hay paraíso. Besides the setting moving from Pereira, Colombia to Madrid, the criminals are changed from a Colombian syndicate to a Spanish criminal allied with a Colombian drug cartel (with whom he clashes over cultural differences), and the police is a bigger threat because it is noticeably more competent.
    • Remade in the United States (in Spanish) as Sin senos no hay paraíso. In this version the main character is also from Pereira, Colombia, but she's smuggled to Mexico to become a drug mule for the Juarez Cartel. There was also a planned alternate version filmed in English, Without breasts there is no paradise, but it fell through during development.
  • Comedy Central created in Argentina a show with five comedians, each from a different Latin American country, La culpa es de Colón ("Blame It On Columbus"). Its success made the channel start versions in other countries, each changing the historical figure in the title: Mexico's La culpa es de Cortés, Colombia's La culpa es de Llorente and Brazil's A Culpa é do Cabral (which like the Mexican and Argentinian version, received a Distaff Counterpart, but one that changed the name instead of just adding a "Women's version" subtitle: A Culpa é da Carlota).
  • Inai Inai Baa! has three foreign remakes: Yiyayiya from China, Ú Òa! from Vietnam and Tu Tu Yay Wah from Myanmar.
  • What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? (South Korea, 2017) — What's Wrong with Secretary Kim (Philippines, March 2024) — Unnamed Thai remake (Thailand, 2024)

    Other Media Remakes 
  • The Captain Future series of novels were adapted in the 1960s into a tokusatsu series in Japan titled Captain Ultra, which was unrelated to Tsuburaya's Ultra Series despite the name, although it was treated by the network as such since it was picked up as a filler series between the finale of Ultraman and the premiere of Ultraseven. There was also a straight anime adaptation in the 1970s.
  • Case 63 is an audio series or scripted podcast. The original (Caso 63) was Chilean, and it was so popular that it was remade in Brazil (Paciente 63), India (Virus 2062), and the United States (Case 63).
  • Elite Beat Agents is an interesting variant, as it's a remake of the Japanese game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan made specifically for American audiences by the same development team.
  • GunFu Fighter is a Chinese remake of Super Hot, but with more kung-fu thrown in like what the title claims.
  • The NES game Flying Warriors by Culture Brain is a remake of the Famicom game Hiryu no Ken 2 developed on the Hiryu no Ken 3 engine, rather than just being a straight localization of either game (in contrast to its predecessor Flying Dragon, which was just an English version of the original Hiryu no Ken).
  • From 1991 to 1993, Japanese software development company SystemSoft attempted to revive the Interactive Fiction genre by porting four of Infocom's games and remaking them for the PC-9801. The first game, Zork I, was released on March 29, 1991; the second, Planetfall, was released on February 28, 1992, followed by Moonmist on September 11, 1992 (under the title Moonmist: Shiroki Kifujin no Nazo [ムーンミスト ～白き貴夫人の謎～; Moonmist: The Mystery of the Noble White Lady]); the final game, Enchanter, was released on March 26, 1993 under the title Enchanter: Wakaki Madōshi no Shirén (エンチャンター ～若き魔導士の試練～; Enchanter: The Trial of the Young Sorcerer). Unlike the original games, all four of these remakes have some of the most common verb commands ("look", "take", etc.) that can be accessed by pressing a corresponding button (the player still has to type the name of an object, though), and enhanced graphics, especially in the list of objects (and, in the case of Moonmist and Enchanter, for the unique background pictures) on which the text is super-imposed. A bit more info on these four remakes can be found here.
  • In Nomine is an American remake of French tabletop roleplaying game In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas.
  • An American comic book remake of the Japanese Visual Novel Saya no Uta was published in 2013. And, unlike in the original, they actually decide to show her true form.
  • As a kind of homage to this trope, the very Japanese-style PS2 Survival Horror game Siren 1 was remade as Siren: Blood Curse on PS3, along with all the changes that normally get applied to Hollywood remakes of Japanese horror (though the original Siren and its sequel did both get English releases first time around). While Siren: Blood Curse is still set in a Japanese village, the all-Japanese cast of the original has been replaced with a mix of Japanese characters and an American TV crew sent in to do a documentary about the legends surrounding the area.
  • Paper Dolls is a Chinese remake of the first Silent Hill game; you're a widower on a road trip with your daughter, who lose consciousness after you crashed your car and find out your daughter is missing. You'll need to search for clues to retrieve her, uncovering some dark secrets related to the occult in the process. Both games have areas which are pitch-black, where your flashlight is your only source of illumination which you'll need to periodically turn on and off to avoid detection from supernatural creatures. Additionally, Dolls have invincible ghost enemies which can only be sealed by certain means, not unlike ghosts from Silent Hill 4. Though the remake in this case is in first-person.
  • Marvel's Spider-Man got his own tokusatsu series in Japan courtesy of Toei as well as a four-issue limited series in India published by Gotham Entertainment. Both versions went on to appear in the Spider-Verse storyline.
  • Hayao Miyazaki's Manga title A Trip To Tynemouth is his version of British author Robert Westall's short story collection Break of Dark.
  • The high-school based brawler, Troublemaker is an Indonesian remake of Bully.
  • "The Wizard of the Emerald City" is a loose Russian translation of The Wizard of Oz. After the first novel the book series follows its own direction.
  • In the early 20th century, many musical shows from London, Vienna and Berlin were imported to New York with the scores largely or completely replaced. The most successful Americanizations included Madame Sherry (1910) and Maytime (1917), though the German source of the latter (Wie einst im Mai) went unadvertised due to the anti-German hysteria of the time. In the case of Blossom Time (1921), the American version of Das Dreimäderlhaus, the score was newly adapted from the same source (Franz Schubert).
  • Everybody Loves Raymond was adapted to the Israeli sitcom You Can’t Choose Your Family that lasted for one season, fairing very poorly and ending when the actress who played Rosa (Israeli Marie), Rozina Cambos, died of cancer.
  • At the height of the popularity of the 1960s Batman (1966) TV show, a licensed Batman manga was published in Japan. Some stories were loosely based on DC characters, but the plots, art, and dialogue were largely new.
  • The Scottish play Yer Granny is a remake of the Argentinian play and film La Nona, relocated to a Glaswegian chip shop.
  • A 90s Scottish touring production of The Odd Couple, starring Gerard Kelly and Craig Ferguson, relocated the whole thing to Glasgow. The Pigeon sisters remained English.
  • An interesting variant of this happened in the United States in the 90's. Prior to the boom of scheduling shows as quarter hour shorts, American channels scheduled every show as a 30-minute program. This created a problem for countries from other nations who wanted to import their 10-minute programs into the United States. To solve this problem, companies created 30-minute versions of these shows, usually with an all-new Framing Device that was usually based on the topic of the original show. Examples included Shining Time Station, Salty's Lighthouse, the 1997 version of The Mr. Men Show, The Noddy Shop and the original US version of Caillou.
  • The Italian comic book series W.I.T.C.H. got a manga adaptation during the height of the brand's mid-2000s popularity. The manga shared the same exact plot and roughly the same script as the original. The biggest change came with the art now being done by Haruko Iida, in order to better appeal to the Japanese market, but even that closely mirrored the style of the original artists Barbucci and Canepa. The end result was basically a black-and-white version of the comics that was cancelled before it could even finish the first story arc.
  • The Japanese manga Boys over Flowers was first adapted into a Japanese movie in 1995. It was then remade into a popular TV series in Taiwan in 2001, a Japanese series in 2005, a South Korean series in 2009, and a Chinese series in 2018.
  • The 2009 American film 17 Again (2009) was remade into a South Korean TV series titled 18 Again in 2020.
  • Blue's Clues:
    • In the UK, Blue's Clues was remade starring ex-Challenge presenter Kevin Duala instead of Steve.
    • Two Korean versions were made, however little is known of them amongst English-speaking fans. One used the original title of Blue's Clues and the second was retitled Blue's Puzzle. It's unknown if both are the same series under different titles or not. Steve's Korean counterpart was Shin Hyun-sup, a local comedian.
  • The Japanese anime Superbook was remade into an American All-CGI Cartoon in 2011.
  • The Japanese mecha anime Voltes V was adapted into a Filipino Live-Action Adaptation entitled Voltes V: Legacy in 2023.

    Not Quite Remakes 
  • Black Swan is not exactly a remake of Perfect Blue, though it's almost the same plot—but with the setting changed from idol singing to ballet. It is so similar, however, that the director actually did license Perfect Blue in order to include a scene taken from the anime.
  • A persistent rumor is that Aaron Spelling tried to license Degrassi Junior High but created Beverly Hills, 90210 after he was rebuffed by the Canadian show's producers.
  • In the early years of talking pictures, a number of movies were filmed simultaneously in different languages, using the same sets but mostly different casts and crews. Perhaps the most famous is the Spanish version of Dracula, whose direction by George Melford is widely reckoned to be superior to Tom Browning's direction of the English version.
    • Another good example is the 1932 German film F. P. 1 antwortet nicht starring Hans Albers and Peter Lorre, which was simultaneously produced in English (as Flying Platform 1 Doesn't Answer) with Conrad Veidt and in French with Charles Boyer.
    • Otto Preminger revived this practice by simultaneously filming The Moon is Blue in two languages. The foreign version, titled Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach, used a cast of well-known German actors led by Hardy Krüger as Donald Gresham.
  • Comic example: DC Comics has made several attempts to launch a Judge Dredd comic in America, but none of them lasted very long.
  • An inverted Pinball example: Chicago-based Stern Pinball's Striker Xtreme (a soccer-based game) was re-released a year later as NFL for an American Football audience.
    • Also reversed with NBA, which was originally intended to be released only in China, but was later updated and released to western markets.
  • Sid and Marty Kroft's D.C. Follies may have been based on the British series, Spitting Image.
  • Several attempts were made to adapt Absolutely Fabulous to American network television in The '90s, but a direct adaptation never quite made it across the Pond. Roseanne Barr bought the rights and, after trying and failing to get a network to buy it, basically turned the ninth season of her show Roseanne into an Ab Fab pastiche (even bringing Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley over as guest stars in case it wasn't obvious enough already). The moderately successful sitcom Cybill was widely regarded by critics at the time it first aired as a ripoff of Ab Fab, with Cybill Shepherd as the Eddie character and Christine Baranski playing an obvious Patsy clone.
  • Belarus had a sitcom titled The Theorists which was their version of The Big Bang Theory. It was also completely unauthorized. CBS had begun legal proceedings when the cast of The Theorists discovered their show was a rip-off and quit en masse, forcing its cancellation.
  • While the 1981 Italian film The Last Shark is not officially a remake of Jaws, it follows the American original so closely that it may as well be considered one. This ultimately led to it being denied a theatrical release in North America after Universal filed a plagiarism suit against the filmmakers.
  • Crocodile (Korea - Thailand, 1979) — Jaws (1975), with a crocodile in place of the shark. Besides the change in animals, the rest of the film follows its inspiration almost frame-by-frame, from the crocodile devouring a swimming woman in the opening to a sub-plot of the monster terrorizing a waterfront resort and a Feed It a Bomb method of killing the monster.

 
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Toon Makers' Sailor Moon

A scraped version of Sailor Moon where the main heroines are all American girls from varying backgrounds who escaped to Earth, fighting evil on different planets in the solar system instead of a single city.

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Medium Blending

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Toon Makers' Sailor Moon

A scraped version of Sailor Moon where the main heroines are all American girls from varying backgrounds who escaped to Earth, fighting evil on different planets in the solar system instead of a single city.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (11 votes)

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Main / MediumBlending

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