Team Gone Girl is reuniting for another dark tale of suspense and danger. Only this time, they’re headed for remake territory, as David Fincher, Ben Affleck and Gillian Flynn will create a new version of Alfred Hitchcock’s **Strangers On A Train.
The new thriller, currently just called Strangers, tweaks some of the details as it updates the story. Flynn will write the script about a film star (Affleck) deep in the middle of an Oscar campaign who needs to hitch a ride when the private plane he’s been using to jet around the country breaks down. He believes his luck has changed when a wealthy stranger offers him a lift to Los Angeles on his own swanky airborne craft. Things take a turn for the complicated from there.
Fincher and co. are keeping the rest of the details to themselves for now, according to Deadline, so we’ll have to wait and see how the new movie compares to Hitchcock’s original in terms of plot. The 1951 film, adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s novel, saw Farley Granger playing Guy Haines, a bored tennis pro who meets a stranger on a train (Robert Walker) and concocts a scheme to swap murderous acts with the wealthy socialite psycho in the hopes that they can both get away scot free. It doesn’t quite work out that way, of course...
Warner Bros. has been eager to snap this one up, and the studio is looking for Affleck to squeeze this one in between directing and starring in** Live By Night** and segueing to the Justice League film. Such a high level of filmmaking talent and a big-name title won’t save this one from the usual concerns about remakes, but it should have enough of a compelling idea to justify revisiting a Hitchcock classic.
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