Just ask Phil Rosenthal. Having struck comic gold with Everybody Loves Raymond in the US, this writer-director assumed his hit sitcom about a dysfunctional US family had global appeal.
"I had to assume that," he says, on the line from New York. "Our show was about families and we all have families. It's a universal subject. But when I got to Russia, that wasn't necessarily true."
Exporting Raymond - a laugh-out-loud highlight at the 2011 Melbourne International Film Festival - is about Rosenthal's attempt to make a Russian version of Raymond.
Cameras follow him to Moscow's decidedly insalubrious TV studios and from his first meeting there is a gaping cultural divide.
A scriptwriter wonders why Ray (renamed Kostya) is bossed around by women. A costume designer imagines a wardrobe big on bling. And when Rosenthal asks for a live studio audience, he is told there are no chairs.
"I was very shocked at how hard it was going to be," Rosenthal admits.
Even when he visits the famous Moscow Art Theatre in the hope of "borrowing" one of its best actors, he is stonewalled by the company's tsar-like chief.
"Nothing was manipulated," he insists.
But Rosenthal can take comfort knowing new versions of Raymond are taking root in India, Egypt, Israel and Poland.
Source http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/arts/russians-love-raymond-da/story-fn7euh6j-1226099671206
"I had to assume that," he says, on the line from New York. "Our show was about families and we all have families. It's a universal subject. But when I got to Russia, that wasn't necessarily true."
Exporting Raymond - a laugh-out-loud highlight at the 2011 Melbourne International Film Festival - is about Rosenthal's attempt to make a Russian version of Raymond.
Cameras follow him to Moscow's decidedly insalubrious TV studios and from his first meeting there is a gaping cultural divide.
A scriptwriter wonders why Ray (renamed Kostya) is bossed around by women. A costume designer imagines a wardrobe big on bling. And when Rosenthal asks for a live studio audience, he is told there are no chairs.
"I was very shocked at how hard it was going to be," Rosenthal admits.
Even when he visits the famous Moscow Art Theatre in the hope of "borrowing" one of its best actors, he is stonewalled by the company's tsar-like chief.
"Nothing was manipulated," he insists.
But Rosenthal can take comfort knowing new versions of Raymond are taking root in India, Egypt, Israel and Poland.
Source http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/arts/russians-love-raymond-da/story-fn7euh6j-1226099671206
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