Hot on the heels of Fantastic Fest favorite TROLL HUNTER hitting theaters comes the news that Chris Columbus is set to remake the Norwegian found footage film. Deadline reports that Columbus’ 1492 Pictures has partnered with CJ Entertainment & Media to acquire remake rights to the  film, directed by Andre Ovredal.

TROLL HUNTER is a mash-up of found footage and fake documentary, and it follows an intrepid group of college kids who go looking for the real answer behind a recent rash of bear deaths. If that title didn't tip you off, they don't find a bear hunter stalking the forests - they find a troll hunter. The kids soon find themselves privy to all sorts of secrets their government doesn't want them to know about as they travel along with their new pal hunting for, seriously, trolls. TROLL HUNTER is both amusing and technically interesting, packed with its own wholesale mythology and a bevy of different trolls (effects marvels, they are) to back up the stories the hunter tells.

Columbus said, "TROLL HUNTER was a visceral, thrilling, cinematic rock and roller coaster ride of a movie. Visually, there are scenes in this film that American audiences have never seen. We want to introduce an international audience to this amazing moviegoing experience."

Columbus is certainly right about TROLL HUNTER, but I don't quite understand the concept of an Americanized remake. The original is a wonderful work that doesn't need anything to make it ready to be "introduced to an international audience." Much of the wonder in TROLL HUNTER is the mythos applied to it that seems to slip in perfectly with Norway, its people, its geography, and its history. An American version of that seems, well, just not nearly as organic to make.

What do you think? Have you seen TROLL HUNTER? What would you want out of an American remake?