This is the uncharted history of Hollywood reworkings from a Turkish Star Trek to a Bollywood Godfather. Did you know that there was a Turkish remake of The Exorcist in which Catholicism was replaced with Islam? Or that in 1966, a film was produced in the Philippines entitled James Batman in which James Bond and Batman team up to fight crime? Or that a Bollywood remake of Memento has been one of the biggest box-office successes in India of all time? The Hollywood Meme is the first comprehensive study of the unlicensed adaptations of American popular culture that appear in national cinema traditions around the world. Tracing the diverse ways in which US films, TV series and comic books have been appropriated and transformed in the film industries of Turkey, India and the Philippines, the book provides a new paradigm for understanding the global impact of Hollywood. It contains twelve detailed case studies including a Turkish reworking of Star Trek titled Turist Omer Uzay Yolunda (1973), a Filipino musical spoof named Alyas Batman en Robin (1993) and a Bollywood remake of The Godfather titled Sarkar (2005).
It examines the global phenomenon of unlicensed film adaptations of American popular culture. It provides a historical introduction to the relationship between Hollywood and the popular film industries of Turkey, India and the Philippines. It offers a new methodology for studying film adaptation building upon Richard Dawkins' concept of the 'meme'.