Stranger Things

Antoine Fuqua must be one brave man. We would be the first to admit that with only his second feature film Training Day, this music-video whizz announced pretty damn clearly that he was a directorial presence to be reckoned with. On the evidence of this gritty, hard-knuckled LA cop story, no more commercials were going to be done by this boy. But now he's taking on Hitchcock. Is the man mad? Treading in the hallowed steps many, many a talented filmmaker has not dared to even glance at out of due humility to the master of suspense, Fuqua is in negotiations to direct a 'reconception' of Hitch's superb Strangers on a Train. (Note how after the debacle that was Tim Buton's The Planet of the Apes, remakes refuse to be named 'reimaginings.')The original boasts one of Hitch's most favoured plotlines of an innocent getting embroiled in all sorts of nasty goings on, when tennis pro Guy meets charismatic commuter Bruno on the said train and gets involved in a hugely elaborate murder plot involving his wife and the father of his new chum in the unfortunate roles of victims. Your normal day on the 7.46 to King's Cross, this is not. Imaginatively entitled Strangers, there's been no details yet as to Fuqua's exact take on this trading murder tale but how he will even attempt to rival the layer upon terrifying layer of suspense that Hitch supplies is going to be intriguing – or horrifying – to see. Christopher Reeve's ill-conceived made-for-TV Rear Window and Gus Van Sant's photocopied Pscyho will, no doubt, be foremost in his mind as to how not to do it.