While it was a perfectly enjoyable film, it’s not like anyone was really asking for a remake of The Intouchables, the French movie that landed back in 2011 to mostly positive reviews. That hasn’t stopped The Weinstein Company from pressing on with their project though and after bringing on Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart to star, the studio is now looking to round out the cast.
Empire’s reporting today that Nicole Kidman and The Night Of breakout Amara Karan have boarded the remake, which has Neil Burger in the director’s chair and Jon Hartmere on scripting duties. For those who haven’t seen the original, it revolved around the true story of a paralyzed aristocrat and his caregiver, a young man who comes from the projects.
In this version, Cranston will take the former role while Hart will slip into the latter. As for the new additions, Kara will play a woman named Maggie, who’s an assistant for Cranston’s character while Kidman will be Yvonne, another helper alongside Hart. Casting is still underway, too, so expect more names to join the roster shortly.
When we reviewed the original several years back, our very own Jeff Beck said the following:
The Intouchables uses a premise that we’ve seen multiple times, but thanks to wonderful performances from Francois Cluzet and Omar Sy, as well as a good dose of humor, filmmakers Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano are able to breathe new life into it.
Will this remake be able to stand up to its predecessor? Right now, we’re skeptical. These types of projects usually don’t work out very well. In fact, Kidman quite recently starred in a foreign film remake that was a bit of a dud (Secret in Their Eyes). That, combined with the fact that the original Intouchables doesn’t particularly need to be remade gives us a bit of doubt. Then again, the cast they’ve assembled is impressive and Burger’s a capable director, so who knows?
Tell us, are you looking forward to the remake of The Intouchables, or did you not really care for the film in the first place? Sound off in the usual place and let us know.