Esteemed filmmaker Channing Tatum has managed to get his hands on a VHS copy of the long-lost, long-running 1980s buddy cop drama Comrade Detective, which was created by the Romanian government to stoke communist fervor during the Cold War. Now, Tatum is restoring the show for American audiences with a newly dubbed edition of the first season, which sees the two detectives investigating the murder of one of their comrades and battling the evils of capitalism.
At least, that’s the premise of Comrade Detective, a new, not-actually-Romanian show from A24 and Amazon Studios. Much like William Goldman’s The Princess Bride claimed to be an abridged version of an obscure work by the fictional “S. Morgenstern,” Amazon’s new show is now pretending to be a dubbed, remastered version of a phony Romanian television series from the 1980s that never existed. As far as premises go, it’s bound to cause a little confusion—but if the first trailer is any indicator, it could also be very, very funny.
Actual Romanian actors Florin Piersic Jr. and Corneliu Ulici play the main characters of the fictional Cold War show, facing off against the American embassy and a sniper in a Ronald Reagan mask. Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will provide their voices for the poorly dubbed “American version,” while Nick Offerman will dub their police captain.
Comrade Detective debuts exclusively on Amazon on Aug. 4, at which time I’m sure this will all make perfect sense.
