A spoof radio news item from the surreal satirists at The Onion joked that a film studio had bought the movie rights to Allan Sherman's classic comic song Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh. That might have been funny once but the world of rights has already gone way past parody. In today's business, the piece wasn't a joke but a spot of consultancy.

For the US studios, the search for content from any source that may have resonance in international markets has become a new form of alchemy. There's not a book fair, comic convention or games expo these days that hasn't got executives crawling all over it.

In the risk-averse business of trying to reach global markets on a scale never seen before in history, any straw will be clutched at.

The boom in sequels, adaptations and remakes over recent years is no flash in the pan. Critics impotently rage against the Hollywood machine; the summer was full of reheated fare that the newspapers hated and the public went to see anyway.

Remakes are perhaps the most aggravating for the cineaste. Sacred cows are now routinely herded off for slaughter. Reviews always carry a line that a film will 'inevitably fail in comparison with the original'. Which begs the question, by whom'

Last week, Indian production houses Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) and T-series announced they were buying out the title and story rights of old Hindi blockbusters for remake. Most are being reworked as animated action cartoons aimed at young audiences for whom the originals are not part of their day-to-day culture.

There's a temptation to lump remakes and sequels into a tidy bracket of low-rent fare that demonstrates a paucity of imagination. But from a business perspective, it's easy to see the attraction. Building on existing property can give a film a head start in marketing, though it should be emphasised that it's far from a racing certainty.

Films that are sacred to older audiences might mean little to younger ones - managing to simultaneously irritate the former without pulling in the latter.

Outside Hollywood, the search for original material on which to build new films should not be seen as a negative. From a producer's perspective, it is possible to find hidden gems at reasonable cost, although more difficult than it once was. The advantages are particularly pronounced where local-language content is concerned.

From the other side, selling on rights is becoming an increasingly important source of revenue. One might have objections to the domination of the English language, but a successful local-language film can now extend its shelf life with a remake. Michael Haneke is directing an English version of his own Funny Games, while Ron Howard is said to be considering a remake of Haneke's multi-award-winning Hidden for Universal.

International success is now feeding back into Hollywood, which is a fascinating challenge to the old argument that cast the studios as the advance guard of US cultural imperialism in a globalised economy. Lukas Moodysson this week announced his first English-language film, following in the recent footsteps of directors such as Oliver Hirschbiegel, Walter Salles and Timur Bekmambetov.

What all this spells for international film is an opportunity, but with a set of clear provisos. Rights sales are now serious business requiring a serious understanding of complex legal and contractual issues.

What has also become apparent is that there will be more demands for a share of the spoils, from investors and authors. Writers, for example, have been increasingly demanding what they see as their rightful share of any spoils to the point where a strike next year is quite possible.

Nonetheless, such difficulties serve to accentuate the reality that we are talking serious business rather than amateur enthusiasm. So back to Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh - I'm thinking Christian Mungiu directing, Gael Garcia Bernal, De Niro ...

- Do you agree' Join the debate at feedback@screeninternational.com or e-mail michael.gubbins@emap.com.