we had a real hard-on for translated titles for a while. two of my faves are 1) translating the bond film “from Russia with love” to “agent 007 sees red” 2) changing the title of “it could happen to you”, a movie that has a guy win two million at the lottery, after which we learn he’s an undercover police officer, and which ends with him giving the money away to a waitress in a heartfelt moment of empathy, into “cop gives waitress $2M tip”
the amityville horror -> “the house that god forgot”
the princess bride -> “minute of the pale death”
grosse pointe blank -> “even an assassin needs a hit from time to time” (where “hit” is slang for “date”)
hitchcock’s “rope” -> “the yell” (the swedish word for yell is “rop”, in the-form its “ropet”. very funny)
and my favourite, which i had forgotten until looking up these things:
superman 3 -> “superman has a bit of bad krypto-luck” (lit. “stålmannen går på en krypto-nit”, “superman walks into a krypto-(losing lottery ticket)”. “gå på en nit” means to fail at a task, as in you failed because of the luck of the draw. and as you may have guessed, “kryptonit” is the swedish translation of kryptonite. yes, i’m cringing just writing this out)
we had a real hard-on for translated titles for a while. two of my faves are 1) translating the bond film “from Russia with love” to “agent 007 sees red” 2) changing the title of “it could happen to you”, a movie that has a guy win two million at the lottery, after which we learn he’s an undercover police officer, and which ends with him giving the money away to a waitress in a heartfelt moment of empathy, into “cop gives waitress $2M tip”
Nice. Here are some more ideas for your translators:
(Warning – Spoilers for movies old enough to drink beer in the US)
Boy talks to dead psychologist
Everyone dies at the end
Earth
right? some others:
and my favourite, which i had forgotten until looking up these things: