Steven Spielberg to Remake ‘Like Father, Like Son’ for American Audiences

By  · Published on September 30th, 2013

Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize winner and Palme d’Or runner-up Like Father, Like Son is getting the remake treatment from Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks. The Japanese film, from director Hirokazu Kore-eda, is the story of a family that discovers their six year-old son is not theirs at all; he was switched at birth with their biological son in the hospital. They, along with the parents of the other child, must now deal with the impossible ‐ do they give up the child they’ve been raising as their own and take back their biological son, or do they keep quiet and pretend nothing happened?

“When I saw the film at Cannes, I was so impressed by its power to bring such a human story to the screen. Here at DreamWorks Studios, Stacey and our team recognized that it was a story we wanted to remake to bring to our audiences throughout the world,” said Spielberg in a statement. “I thank Hirokazu Kore-eda and Fuji TV for giving us this once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Spielberg will not be directing the film, nor has he announced who will nab that role. Kore-eda will still have involvement though, in some capacity, as he stated that he’s looking forward to working with Spielberg.

Our own Shaun Munro reviewed the film at Cannes and kind of, almost predicted this happening: “For all of the visual pizzazz of Spielberg’s blockbusters, his films almost always return to matters of the family, and as such, it’s easy to see how the latest offering from I Wish director Hirokazu Kore-eda would very much appeal to his sensibilities if not also those of the rest of the jury.”

How could Spielberg ever resist? [THR]

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