Another Round served as the epitome of brilliance to its audiences when it was released back in 2020. In fact, it became so famous that even Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way got the rights to make a Hollywood remake of it where he would star in Mads Mikkelsen’s place in the lead. But this news wasn’t received all too well by the fans.
Yet, even in that hard time, there was someone standing by DiCaprio’s side to defend him, and that someone was the very mastermind behind the massive success of the film: filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, who did that even when Mikkelsen refused to return to Another Round for the Hollywood remake.
Thomas Vinterberg Defended Leonardo DiCaprio’s Another Round Remake
Starring Mads Mikkelsen in the lead as Martin, Another Round followed the storylines of midlife crises and the extent to which man is willing to go to search for happiness — the very thing that captured the viewer’s attention most compellingly and made the film such a tremendous success.
But even merely at the reports of a Hollywood remake of the Danish film, fans were out rallying against the idea. This was because they were against the idea of subtitled movies gaining friction among English-language audiences.
However, when the director of the masterpiece, Thomas Vinterberg was asked to comment on the issue, reporters were stunned to hear him defend Leonardo DiCaprio for having acquired remake rights to the comedy thriller and wanting to star in Mikkelsen’s place in it.
Claiming it was an “interesting artistic thing to see something grow into different versions,” the filmmaker said in an interview with IndieWire:
“I’ve seen various interpretations of my work before,” he said. “Now it’s in the hands of the finest actor [referring to Leonardo DiCaprio] you can get and besides being a brilliant actor, he’s made very intelligent choices throughout his career. I feel there’s a lot of integrity in the choices he’s made. I’m full of hope and curiosity about what they’re up to.”
Thus, even though he refused to be involved in any way as a writer or director with the remake of Another Round, Thomas Vinterberg still supported Leonardo DiCaprio to the core for the project. But that wasn’t the end of the conflict.
Thomas Vinterberg’s Take On Mads Mikkelsen For The Remake
Thomas Vinterberg’s response to fans pointing out that Mads Mikkelsen was eligible for Another Round‘s Hollywood remake as well since he was fluent in English was something similar to what the actor himself said during another interview later on.
Continuing in the interview with IndieWire, while explaining how he would leave all the casting decisions to Appian Way, the filmmaker said:
“I don’t know if Mads [Mikkelsen] would do such a thing. My first thought would be to make a different interpretation. Asking the same actor to do a different interpretation could be a little bit confusing. But I won’t be the main creative force in this. That would have to be up to the people who end up doing it.”
A little while after this interview, Mads Mikkelsen himself shared how he was “glad not to be part of” Leonardo DiCaprio’s Hollywood remake of Another Round during an interview with IndieWire in May 2021, so the case was closed there and then with the remake decision left entirely to DiCaprio.
Another Round is available for streaming on Hulu.
