Much-loved Colombian movie set to get Hollywood makeover
A Hollywood version of award-winning Colombian film Un Poeta, rumored to star actor Bill Murray, has angered Latin American fans of the movie worried the remake could be lost in translation.
The 2025 Cannes favorite – it won a jury prize in the coveted un certain regard category – features a down-at-heel poet and was filmed in Medellín with a mix of professional and first-time actors.
News of a U.S. copy has sparked strong reactions from Colombian audiences convinced the darkly satirical Spanish-language version is strong enough to pull in audiences worldwide on its own merits.
“This film is a brilliant Latin-American movie made less than one year ago,” said Mexican critic Jesús Iglesias on his Peli de La Semana (‘Film of the Week’) website.
Filmmakers should allow more time for the original to circulate before creating another version, including with subtitles for foreign viewers, he added.
Historically film companies had waited two or three decades before remaking a movie. The fast-track English-language copy of Un Poeta showed “a lack of respect for Latin American artists,” argued Iglesias.
While there was no official confirmation this week that Ghostbusters star Bill Murray would take the leading role, The Hollywood Reporter announced that the English-language version would be scripted by Nathan Silver and produced by Ben Saïd, a French Tunisian well known for his avant-garde movies.
Tale of redemption
The Colombian original of Un Poeta, directed by Simón Mesa Soto, wowed critics in May 2025 and later scored a whopping 92 per cent on Rotten Tomato’s audience poll.
The two-hour movie follows the tribulations of middle-aged Oscar, a failed poet wandering the streets of Medellín in a drunken stupor and ruing the lack of literature in his home society. His life turns around after meeting a young student he mentors in a poetry competition.
This tale of redemption, starring first-time actor Ubeimar Rios as the failed poet, was “a hilarious fable about trying to lead a creative life and failing miserably at making ends meet,” according to a review in Variety magazine.
Much of the movie’s charm was its setting in Medellín and nod to the characteristics of paisa culture, Colombian critic and film industry expert Jazid Contreras told The Bogotá Post.
“Some cultural aspects will be hard to translate,” he said. “The risk is Hollywood produces an oversimplified watered-down version which often happens when movies are adapted to other cultures.”
But the U.S. film industry’s haste to remake the movie could also be seen positively, said Contreras.
“In some ways it’s a vote of confidence that here in Colombia we can make films with stories that are universal and which can move audiences in any part of the world.”
World’s top telenovela
Historically, few Colombian TV and movie productions had been adapted for foreign consumption, said Contreras. The standout exception being the 1999 series Yo Soy Betty, La Fea which in 2006 transferred to the U.S. as Ugly Betty.
Ugly Betty was a prime example of a successful switch to an English-language version, said Contreras.
The original Colombian series was recast in New York as a show that touched on themes of exclusion, classism, racism and migration, with Betty coming from a poor Mexican family.
Ugly Betty also boosted the career of America Ferrera who became the first Latina actress to win a lead actress Emmy Award, along with a Golden Globe.
But the social themes tapped by the original show travelled a lot further than New York: the Colombian production would go on to hold the world record from most remakes according to the Guiness Book of Records.
Adaptions have now been produced in 28 countries, including Algeria, Greece, Vietnam, China and Mexico.
Moonlighting
Part of Betty’s success as a universal figure was that local versions fitted her story to the cultural context, said Contreras.
That was also the hope of creator of Un Poeta, Simón Mesa Soto, for his tragicomic hero’s move to Hollywood.
Pushing back at criticism of the English-language remake, the Colombian filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter that producer Ben Saïd had been captivated by the original character of Oscar, but could take the U.S. version in new directions.
“He felt a strong connection to the main character, so much so that he wanted to use him as inspiration for his next film. Not to make an identical adaptation of the original, but to incorporate elements that would align with his own artistic vision,” said Mesa Soto.
A remake would not diminish the quality of the original film, he said.
And in a reflection perhaps on his movie’s main character, Mesa Soto noted that artists frequently faced financial struggles in Colombia: the director had himself moonlighted as a university teacher while making the movie, his only way to get by.
The Hollywood deal would be a welcome financial boost, he said.
“Of course, there are people who can afford to reject an offer like this and make films with their own money because they have it. But that’s not my case,” he concluded.
