The Americans removed their version of “Irony of Fate”, outraging the Russians

The debut trailer for the American remake of “The Irony of Fate” from the MGM studio has appeared on the Web. It is called About Fate (“About Fate”). Instead of Barbara Brylskaya, the niece of Julia Roberts Emma starred in the film, instead of Myagkov – the inexpressive Thomas Mann. The action takes place in a low-rise American outback, and there is a wedding. Russians are already massively outraged in the comments, calling American cinema the “horror of the year” and expressing a desire to rewatch Ryazanov’s film in order to quickly forget what they saw in the trailer.

The original TV movie “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” in two parts it was released on Soviet screens on January 1, 1976. During the first three years of regular shows, he managed to attract the attention of, according to the most conservative estimates, 250 million viewers from the USSR itself and neighboring countries.

The new American adaptation will not be the first attempt to freshen up this well-known story. In 2007, director Timur Bekmambetov released a sequel to the original film, The Irony of Fate. Continuation “with Sergei Bezrukov and Konstantin Khabensky. However, the film, which tried to continue the plot, in fact, and did not need to be continued, was not received very well by the public.

Also in 2015, Indian cinematographer Radhika Rao made an attempt to create her own version, the film was called “I love New Year”. Its plot almost completely repeats the 1976 film, in many respects even the scenery was copied. However, all the characters were, of course, replaced with their Indian versions. But this “Irony of Fate” was also received by the audience without much enthusiasm, both in Russia and abroad.

What will the American “Irony of Fate” be about?

The American adaptation of the Soviet classics was called “About Fate” (in the literal translation – “About Fate”). Moreover, especially for Russian distribution in our country, the name was changed to “The Irony of Fate in Hollywood”, which is how the picture is currently called on all movie sites. The choice of such a name seems rather strange, because there will be no Hollywood in the plot even more so.

The project began to be developed in 2021. The author of the idea was the Russian director Marius Weisberg. The audience can certainly remember such films as “Hitler Kaput!”, “Rzhevsky against Napoleon” and “Grandmother of Easy Virtue”. According to Marius, the desire to acquaint the whole world with the pearl of our cinema prompted him to create a remake: “I am very glad that the Soviet cultural heritage will now become the property of the whole world. I worked on this project for many years, until finally, thanks to my partners, we managed to create a very soulful and fun movie.”

Weisberg really looked for sponsors for a remake for a long time, as a result, the MGM film company decided to take on the development. Filming took place in the winter of 2021 in Boston. The whole process took only a month, but the work had to be carried out in the most difficult conditions of a pandemic in compliance with all strict sanitary rules.

The plot of “The Irony of Fate in Hollywood” will be expected to be very different from the original. The main characters of the story will be Margo and Griffin. They live in different cities, have never met and both of them already have a couple. Griffin is about to propose to his girlfriend on New Year’s Eve, but he’s still in big doubt about whether he can spend the rest of his life with her. Margot did not even have time to think about marriage, because her boyfriend left her right before her sister’s imminent wedding.

Ironically, Griffin gets drunk and accidentally confuses his house with Margot’s. The next morning, both wake up in shock in the same apartment. The girl immediately understands that the sudden appearance of a guy in the house gives her a great chance not to look lonely at the wedding.

The creators have repeatedly stated in interviews that their film will be primarily American, that is, no Soviet flavor of the original should be expected here. Weisberg also shared his vision of what the remake would be like: “Conceptually, it’s closer to a soft and romantic interpretation of The Hangover. At the same time, the picture is strictly family, there will be no vulgarity there. ”

Who will play in “The Irony of Fate in Hollywood”

The role of Margo went to actress Emma Roberts, the niece of the famous Julia Roberts. Emma became famous for her roles in cute light comedy melodramas, which is what the new “Irony of Fate” is planned for. For example, many may remember her from the films It’s a Very Funny Story, Little Italy, and Status: It’s Complicated.

Griffin, the American analogue of Zhenya Lukashin, will be portrayed on the screen by Thomas Mann. Weisberg drew attention to Thomas because of his great talent for the comedy genre. He managed to establish himself with work in the films “Me, Earl and the Dying Girl”, “Project X: Dorvali” and the same “It’s a very funny story.”

Also in the film you can see Madeleine Petsch (“Blind”), Lewis Tan (“Deadpool 2”), Britt Robertson (“Mr. Church”) and many others.

Viewer reviews

The film’s promotional video was met with mixed reactions on the Internet. On the one hand, some people liked the cute couple of main characters in the Hollywood sense, they are ready to give the film a chance.

On the other hand, Russian commentators did not appreciate how the creators treated the Soviet classics. Almost nothing remains of the original film in the remake. Here are just a few comments.

“Even the Indian version seems to be better than the American one.” “What a mess of your crickets in burgers.” “Hippolit is unconvincing: where is the anti-alcohol message?”

And finally, the words that express the feelings of many: “No one will ever be able to remake this movie well, because it simply does not need to be done.”

Foreigners, however, did not like the fact that the first half of the plot was almost completely retold in the trailer, which somewhat reduced their desire to watch the picture in principle.

The release date of the American “Irony of Fate”

The picture will be released in Russia on September 1, 2022, in all other countries on September 9.