The $30 million toe in the water

The Platform, a dystopian thriller released in 2020, is close to getting a remake, directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. The film was a major success for Netflix and currently stands as the streamer's seventh most popular non-English movie of all time.

According to Variety, The Platform is one of several titles being pitched at a remake rights event during the Shanghai Film & TV Market on June 21.

Latido Films will bring the movie to the event , featuring various companies attempting to convince buyers of the Asian market remake potential of their titles.

Why 4,000 unsold units became the prize

The Platform is in Spanish, and the focus of the Shanghai Remakes event on the Asian market suggests those hoping for an English-lanuage version of the movie will be out of luck, at least for now.

As Antonio Saura, the managing director of Latido Films, explains, the film has a high-concept story that translates easily into different languages and cutlures, suggesting an American take could eventually happen.

The film's story about inmates in a vertical prison forced to fight over a descending platform of food made it a major success for Netflix and currently stands as the streamer's seventh most popular non-English movie of all time.

An echo of Sydney's 2024 institutional buy-up

The Platform is close to getting a remake, directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, a dystopian thriller released in 2020 with Netflix acquiring worldwide rights after a strong premiere at TIFF in 2019.

The film's success on Netflix has led to a sequel,The Platform 2, which was released in 2024 but didn't achieve the same level of success critically or in terms of viewershhip.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the original has an 81% critics' score, while the sequel only has a 36%.

Who is the unnamed buyer?

Nothing is finalized just yet regarding The Platform remake, but it certianly sounds like audiences can expect a new take on the film in the coming years .

Whether it becomes the smash hit that the original was, hoewver, remains to be seen.

A familiar pattern from the 2019 crash

Remakes, reboots, and sequels are all the rage in Hollywood, and have been for some time.

The Platform remake fits into this growing trend, and it could be a sign that more Netflix films may get remade moving forward.

If something is already a proven hit, after all, that takes a lot of risk out of the equation for investors.