Hollywood thinks removing the subtitles is enough of a concept
Within days of 'Another Round' claiming the Oscar for Best International Feature, Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way production company had already secured the rights to remake it in English — a speed that says less about any single film and more about Hollywood's enduring conviction that foreign stories must be translated, not merely subtitled, to reach American audiences. The deal, won in competitive auction over notable rivals, places DiCaprio in line to inhabit a role Mads Mikkelsen made his own: a middle-aged teacher adrift in alcohol and quiet desperation. It is a story about men searching for meaning in diminishment, and perhaps there is a certain irony in an industry doing the same.
- A prestigious Danish film had barely left the Oscar stage before an American remake was already in motion, compressing the distance between artistic recognition and commercial extraction to a matter of days.
- Appian Way outmaneuvered Jake Gyllenhaal and Elizabeth Banks in a competitive auction, signaling just how urgently Hollywood coveted the property — and how many players were circling it simultaneously.
- Social media erupted not merely at the remake itself, but at what it implied: that subtitles remain an insurmountable barrier, and that removing them constitutes a creative act worth millions in development money.
- Filmmaker Jessica Ellis crystallized the underlying inequity with a single joke — if Mads Mikkelsen got to remake 'Titanic,' the arrangement might feel fair — exposing a one-way current in the global flow of adaptation.
- The original film now exists in the shadow of its own imminent domestication, its moment of singular international recognition already beginning to dissolve into the machinery of studio production.
Leonardo DiCaprio's production company Appian Way, working alongside producer Jennifer Davisson, won a competitive auction for the English-language remake rights to 'Another Round' — the Danish film that had claimed the Oscar for Best International Feature just days earlier. They beat out Jake Gyllenhaal's Nine Stories and Elizabeth Banks partnering with Universal Pictures. Director Thomas Vinterberg reportedly favored DiCaprio for the lead: a high school teacher unraveling through alcoholism and middle-aged despair, the same role Mads Mikkelsen made unforgettable in the original. Endeavor Content and Makeready will co-produce and finance alongside Appian Way.
The swiftness of the deal became its own story. A film that had just received cinema's highest international honor was, within the same week, already being repurposed for American audiences — a timeline that struck many observers as less a tribute than a reflex. On social media, the backlash was pointed: critics questioned whether eliminating subtitles truly constitutes a creative vision, and whether the announcement revealed an industry incapable of letting anything exist in its original form long enough to breathe.
Jessica Ellis offered the sharpest response, proposing that Mads Mikkelsen should be given the rights to remake 'Titanic' in return — a joke that carried a genuine question about creative reciprocity and the direction in which adaptation is permitted to flow. The episode reflects a durable Hollywood pattern: the hunger for proven international successes, and the quiet assumption that American stars and production values can improve upon, or at least make palatable, what foreign cinema has already achieved. 'Another Round' will now exist in two versions, and the singular recognition of the first has already begun to blur.
Leonardo DiCaprio's production company has acquired the rights to remake 'Another Round,' the Danish film that won the Oscar for Best International Feature just days before the deal closed. Appian Way, DiCaprio's outfit alongside producer Jennifer Davisson, outbid several heavyweight contenders—including Jake Gyllenhaal's Nine Stories and Elizabeth Banks working with Universal Pictures—to secure the English-language adaptation rights in what sources describe as a competitive auction. Director Thomas Vinterberg, who helmed the original, reportedly favored DiCaprio for the lead role: a high school teacher grappling with alcoholism and the particular despair of middle age, a part that Mads Mikkelsen inhabited in the Oscar-winning version.
The speed of the deal raised eyebrows. Here was a film that had just collected cinema's most prestigious international honor on Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, and by the time the week was out, an American remake was already in motion. Endeavor Content and Makeready will co-produce and finance the project alongside Appian Way, assembling the kind of industrial machinery that turns intellectual property into studio product.
But the announcement landed poorly on social media, where a particular frustration surfaced: the assumption that American audiences cannot or will not engage with subtitled cinema. One critic framed it sharply—the notion that removing text from the bottom of the screen constitutes a creative concept worthy of millions in development money. Another user saw it more plainly as opportunism, a prestigious foreign film still warm from its Oscar win being immediately repurposed for profit. The speed itself became part of the complaint, a symptom of an industry that cannot let anything exist in its original form for more than a few days.
Filmmaker Jessica Ellis offered a pointed counter-proposal: if Hollywood was going to remake 'Another Round,' then Mads Mikkelsen should get to remake 'Titanic.' The joke contained a real question about fairness and creative reciprocity, about whether the traffic in adaptation should flow only one direction.
The deal reflects a broader Hollywood pattern—the appetite for proven international successes, the confidence that American stars and American production values can improve upon or at least domesticate foreign cinema for domestic audiences. Whether that appetite reflects genuine audience demand or simply the industry's own risk aversion remains unclear. What is clear is that 'Another Round' will now exist in two versions, and the original's moment of singular recognition has already begun to fragment.
Notable Quotes
Director Thomas Vinterberg wanted to see DiCaprio in the role of an alcoholic high-school teacher facing midlife crises— Deadline reporting on the deal
Fine but Mads Mikkelsen gets to remake Titanic— Filmmaker Jessica Ellis, on social media
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did DiCaprio's company win this auction over someone like Elizabeth Banks or Jake Gyllenhaal? What made them the preferred choice?
Vinterberg wanted DiCaprio in the role specifically. That matters more than money sometimes. DiCaprio has the stature and the track record to carry a character study about a man falling apart. That's not a superhero movie—it requires an actor people will sit with in his decline.
But the film just won an Oscar. Why remake it at all? Why not just distribute the original more widely?
Because the original is in Danish with subtitles, and there's a belief in the industry that American audiences won't watch that. Whether that belief is true or just convenient is the real question. The remake assumes the problem is the language, not the story.
The social media reaction was harsh. Do you think that matters to the studios?
It matters as noise, as a signal that people are tired of this particular move. But it doesn't stop the machine. The deal is already done. The money is already committed. The anger is real, but it's also predictable at this point.
What would have to change for Hollywood to stop doing this?
Audiences would have to actually watch the subtitled versions in numbers that make remakes unnecessary. Or the remakes would have to fail so consistently that the math stops working. Right now, the industry believes there's money in this. Until that changes, 'Another Round' is just the next one.