A HOLLYWOOD makeover of a 1970s cult movie set in the North-East has flopped in its first week of release.

Get Carter, a British gangster movie starring Michael Caine, put Newcastle firmly on the film-making map and gained massive plaudits.

The 21st Century version, which kept the title, exchanged the grit and grime of Tyneside for the streets of Los Angeles, with a new script and Sylvester Stallone in the lead role.

And, according to the critics, taking the film out of the North-East and hacking apart the original script has made it a cinematic disaster.

Launched in Los Angeles last week, box office takings for Get Carter limped to $6.7m, less than a quarter of the takings of rival blockbuster release, Meet The Parents.

North-East fans of the original were appalled that a re-make of the film was on the cards.

Chris Riley, of the Get Carter Appreciation Society, said: "It doesn't show respect to the original. Making it in Los Angeles and completely changing the story line does not do it justice.

"I haven't seen it so I cannot criticise the content and quality of the film, but to try to remake Get Carter in the sort of clichd random backdrop isn't paying respect to Mike Hodges and the people involved in the original."