[wordup] Russia's cult video pirate rescripts Lord of the Rings as gangster film

[Adam Shand]

He-lar-e-us.

From: 
http://film.guardian.co.uk/lordoftherings/news/0,11016,983354,00.html

Russia's cult video pirate rescripts Lord of the Rings as gangster film

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Sunday June 22, 2003
The Observer

They call him the Goblin. He is the new toast of Russia's massive 
pirate video industry, his films sought all over Moscow. The trick of 
his silver screen success is that the Goblin redubs Hollywood movies, 
using his own 'better' Russian alternative to the script.

A former senior police investigator from St Petersburg, Dmitri Puchkov 
began by making fresh translations to replace the appalling subtitles 
on pirated films. But now his cult following has found pan-Russian 
appeal, with a ground-breaking rewrite of the first two parts of The 
Lord of the Rings.

In a move that has taken the Russian pirate disk world by storm and 
infuriated traditionalists and copyright lawyers, Puchkov has 
completely changed the script, turning the 'good' characters, like 
Frodo, into bumbling Russian cops, and the 'bad' Orcs into Russian 
gangsters.

The new, irreverent version of The Lord of the Rings is set in Russia. 
Frodo Baggins is renamed Frodo Sumkin (a derivative from the Russian 
word sumka, or bag). The Ranger, Aragorn, is called Agronom (Russian 
for farm worker). Legolas is renamed Logovaz, after a Russian car 
company famed for its Ladas. Boromir becomes Baralgin, after a Russian 
type of paracetemol.

Gandalf spends much of the film trying to impress others with his 
in-depth knowledge of Karl Marx, and Frodo is cursed with the filthy 
tongue of a Russian criminal.

The films - which Puchkov says were originally made for his close 
friends but have now gone out on the internet - have found cult appeal 
in Russia's crowded pirate market, where a pirated, high-quality DVD in 
both Russian and English costs £5. That is all ordinary Russians, who 
earn only $300 a month in Moscow, can afford. The Russian pirate 
industry is worth $311 million, and has grown by 25 per cent since last 
year, pirates making more than 40 million disks a year.

For his next blockbuster, Puchkov, who learnt English at a police 
society, is said to be planning a comic Russian version of Star Wars.