Reboots and the Politics of Audiovisual Translation. True Lies: From James Cameron's Film (1994) to the Disney+ TV Series (2023)

Situated in the post-millennial era, reboots may serve as dynamic spaces where various discourses intersect and textual proliferation occurs. Primarily associated with the action genre, this form of franchising often erases the original films it builds upon, strategically navigating various facets of a political conflict through the introduction of transformative elements. Unlike other forms of remakes, a reboot deliberately neutralises the validity of its predecessor. Beyond its enormous success and intertextual nod to works like 007 and Psycho, the film True Lies (directed by James Cameron, 1994) has increasingly faced scathing criticism on account of the misogyny and racism steeped in its dialogues. In 2023 CBS and Disney+ released a tv series that revisited the narrative of the double-life-living husband and spy Harry Tasker and his wife Helen in a TV series from a politically correct perspective. My research aims to examine the dialogues within both the original film and the series, exploring how language constructs diverse notions of national security, ethnicity, and gender. Additionally, I will investigate the translational choices made during the Italian dubbing and subtitling of both the film and the reboot, critically examining the politics of audiovisual translation as it shifts across different media (from cinema to Over-the-Top platforms), formats (from feature film to TV series), and audiences.