With this year marking the 60th anniversary of Tom Ripley's debut, it seems fitting that a significant new screen project should be in the works. Much filmed already, this time he's heading to television, with Television 360 and Endemol Shine Studios joining forces to adapt all five of Patricia Highsmith's macabre crime novels{
Not the alien-fighting kind, Highsmith's Ripley is a con-artist and serial killer, living the high life courtesy of a stolen inheritance, a wealthy father-in-law and a lucrative sideline in art forgery. Suave and sophisticated, he's completely without conscience and can't even remember his bodycount (it's actually a modest ten, with a handful of other deaths indirectly attributable to him).
The books he appears in, published between 1955 and 1991, are The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley and Ripley Under Water. The first was adapted as Purple Moon with Alain Delon in 1960, and under its proper title with Matt Damon in 1999. Ripley's Game has been filmed twice too, first with Dennis Hopper (as The American Friend) and later with John Malkovich. And Ripley Under Ground starred Barry Pepper in 2005.
Television 360's Guymon Casady (Game Of Thrones) and Ben Forkner (Good People) will executive produce and have brokered the deal with Highsmith's estate. There's no channel or timeframe in place yet, but their intention is to take Ripley to cable or streaming (so an HBO or a Netflix or their ilk) in the hands of a name filmmaker.
Todd Haynes' Carol, based on Highsmith's The Price Of Salt, has just gone over well at Cannes and should be out towards the end of the year. Andy Goddard's The Blunderer, based on her novel of the same title, is currently in post-production.