Demi Moore Starrer The Joneses To Be Remade
By SAMPURNThursday, May 13, 2010
May 13, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): While The Joneses has just been released in the US this week, its desi version is already being planned. It will be produced by Sheetal Talwar and Madhu Mantena’s company Vistaar-Religare who also had financial stakes in the Demi Moore starrer.
The Joneses, the big new summer blockbuster rom-com starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny which opened on April 16 across America will be remade in Hindi at an estimated budget of Rs. 60 crores, though not in the same style as the original material, by director Bhavna Talwar, who has made the highly-acclaimed Dharm with Pankaj Kapoor in the lead.
Talwar intends to completely turn around the American film. “I want to remove The Joneses from the rom-com space and make it a mirror of suburban life in India.”
This is the first time that a Hollywood release is being remade in Bollywood so soon after its original release. Bhavna says she fell in love with the material the minute she read the script.
Her husband, producer Sheetal Vinod Talwar, who is one of the producers of The Joneses, suggested that she remake the film in Hindi.
Says Bhavna, “At first I baulked at the very idea of doing a remake, and that too of a Hollywood rom-com. Both my films so far, Dharm and the about-to-release Happi, are original works. I reluctantly read the script for The Joneses. I loved the material, not the way it is, but in the way it can be modified, restructured, and adapted into our own style and environment.”
Though she’s in touch with Demi Moore about the adaptation Bhavna has no intentions of watching The Joneses. “Not now, maybe never. I don’t want my vision of the script to be influenced by what they’ve done.”
While the focus in The Joneses is on the couple played by Moore and Duchovny, who move into the American suburbs, Bhavna Talwar’s instant adaptation would shift the focus from the couple to their son.
Bhavna wants Ranbir Kapoor to play the son.
Laughs Bhavna, “I’m not talking about the cast as yet. But yes, I find the idea of looking at the suburban jungle through the son’s eyes very interesting. That’s how my version of The Joneses will be structured.”
– Subhash K. Jha / Sampurn Wire
