I can stomach Quentin Tarantino’s “presentation” of Zhang Yimou’s Hero, because I saw it 2 years before theatrical release on a Hong Kong bootleg. If he hadn’t done anything, who knows when/if it would have ever come out. I can understand the rationale behind distributors not wanting to release something as out-there as a Chinese martial arts epic, what with the way Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – originally ditributed in Australia as art-house, then picked-up by mainstream cinemas – was received. God knows you wouldn’t want to make money by cashing-in on a new trend. That’s the last thing distributors like to do.
So when I saw that Spain’s Scrapland had been released in the West – oops, I mean the Anglophone world – not long after its release but with the American McGee Brand stamped all over it, I was unsurpised, if a little annoyed. This annoyance was further compounded by an interview I read with Msr McGee, in which he said “I didn’t just translate and distribute. I added shit to this game. It’s mine now. Screw the Spaniards!” – or words to that effect. Yeah: and American McGee’s Alice was such an original idea. I mean: who’d a thunk of making Alice in Wonderland ‘dark’ and ‘insane’? Little goth kids had been into that idea since the Disney film which, might I add, was a hell of a lot more sinister than American’s. Now we can look forward to American McGee’s Oz, and the no-doubt brilliantly titled American McGee’s Alice: The Movie, starring Actress Sarah Michelle “I killed Angel!” Gellar, who’s vast acting range has been described by a friend of mine as including both ‘angry hands’ AND ’sad hands’.