1. Ben Arnold Any inappropriate language written by Matthew Sheeran
Gay Same Movie, Different Time – LO2
Statistical comparison
Name: Rec
Director: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
Year of Production: 2007
Producer: Julio Fernández
Cast: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza and Jorge-Yamam
Serrano
Distributor: Filmax
Country of Origin: Spain
Budget: €1,500,000
Box Office Takings: $32,492,948
Name: Quarantine
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Year of Production: 2008
Producer: Doug Davison, Roy Lee, Sergio Aguero, Carlos
Fernánde ,Julio Fernández,
Cast: Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris and Columbus Short
Distributor: Screen Gems
Country of Origin: USA
Budget: $12,000,000
Box Office Takings: $31,691,811
This essay will cover remakes of classic movies, and the production factors which ignite the primary
idea to remake them in the first place. I will cover a multitude of remakes in this assignment, but will
mainly concentrate on REC (Jaume Balaguero 2007) and its re-made equivalent, Quarantine (John
Erick Dowdle 2008). Films are re-made because of the sheer success of the original, like The War of
the Worlds (1953/2005) and The Thing (1982/2011) for example. They are almost always a sure fire
way of making a lot of money, as long as the original was a hit with a wide range of people. The
majority of re-makes are made over a decade after the first, but Dowdle broke the conventions and
made Quarantine, which wasn’t quite as successful as its Spanish predecessor. REC is arguably a
niche film, created by Spanish director Jaume Balaguero in 2007. It was given an estimated budget of
around 1.5 million Euros, and by the 23rd of November 2007 it had grossed around $32.5 million
worldwide.
Although they are not the main focus point of this essay, I would like to cover The War of the Worlds
movies while I’m here. The War of the Worlds is a Science Fiction movie directed in 1953 by Byron
Haskin. Production for the movie began in 1951 under the watchful eye of Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures. “H.G. Well's classic novel is brought to life is this tale of alien invasion. The
residents of a small town in California are excited when a flaming meteor lands in the hills. Their joy
is tempered somewhat when they discover that it has passengers who are not very friendly. The
movie itself is understood better when you consider that it was made at the height of the Cold War--
just replace Martian with Russian” (IMDB synopsis)

2. Ben Arnold Any inappropriate language written by Matthew Sheeran
The remake was created in 2005 by Steven Spielberg, with the power of Paramount Pictures and
Dreamworks SKG behind him. Arguably, this is not a remake, because the ‘the’ is missed out of the
title, but the movies are too similar for anybody to even say that they’re completely different. The
genres are exactly the same, except the modern version has more action/thriller elements added to
it. “Ray Ferrier (Cruise) is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. When his ex-wife and
her new husband drop off his teenage son Robbie and young daughter Rachel for a rare weekend
visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm suddenly touches down. What follows is the
extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to
survive it in this contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells’s seminal classic sci-fi thriller.” (IMDB synopsis)
Steven Spielberg’s
remake of The War Of
The Worlds covers the
issues raised on 9/11,
because the 1953 version
had people terrified
because the aliens
represented the ever
present Nazi Germany as
it slowly clouded over
Europe, and it also coincided with America’s Cold-War era fear of an imminent nuclear war. The
remake is very similar to the first with its underlying political message. It covers everything the
Americans feared about 9/11; a foreign threat, their world destroyed. There is even a scene in the
movie that portrays Tom Cruise shaking the ash of dead neighbours from his body, just like the ash
covered victims from the World Trade Centre did all those years ago.
Another prime example of a successful remake is John Carpenter’s The Thing, in 1982 when the
original hit the screens, nobody knew what to expect. What they got after the 109 minutes was a
film so frightening it quickly became well known, even amongst people too young to be around for
its release. It grossed $19,629,760 in the USA alone in no more than 6 months. “An American
scientific expedition to the frozen wastes of the Antarctic is interrupted by a group of seemingly mad
Norwegians pursuing and shooting a dog. The helicopter pursuing the dog crashes leaving no
explanation for the chase. During the night, the dog mutates and attacks other dogs in the cage and
members of the team that investigate. The team soon realises that an alien life-form with the ability
to take over other bodies is on the loose and they don't know who may already have been taken
over.”(IMDB synopsis)
The main focus of this essay is REC, and its recent remake, Quarantine. Both movies were successful
in their own countries, especially REC, which was even a massive hit in America when an English
subtitled version was released. Horizontal integration played a fair role in both successes in America
because REC was released on DVD at the same time Quarantine was released in cinemas. This
helped boost sales for both because the people who had just watched Quarantine may have
thought: “Oh that was good, let’s go see the film it was based on”.

3. Ben Arnold Any inappropriate language written by Matthew Sheeran
Synergy is another way of promoting a movie; synergy is the promotion and sale of a product (and
all its versions) throughout the various areas of a media conglomerate, such as, short movies, video
games, merchandise and soundtracks. For example, the 2008 video game Dead Space was released
alongside toys, t-shirts, figurines/models and an animated movie entitled Dead Space: Downfall. All
of these promoted the game and boosted it to rake in over $50,000,000 on the opening week alone.
Dead Space: Downfall trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqTFcsnY9S4
Screen gems, the company who distributed REC is an
example of a vertically integrated company, it is an
American movie production company and a
subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment . Sony are
a massive follower of vertical integration because it
has so many pros about it, some include:
Lower transaction costs
Synchronization of supply and demand along
the chain of products
Lower uncertainty and higher investment
Ability to monopolize market throughout the chain by market foreclosure
Strategic independence
Better opportunities for investment growth through reduced uncertainty
And local companies are better positioned against foreign competition