A new David FIncher rumour: he’s reportedly set to remake Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, with Charlize Theron lined up for a starring role.
Another week, another David Fincher rumour. Given how many stories we’ve heard of late regarding Fincher’s next project for Netflix, we’re beginning to wonder if the Fight Club filmmaker is orchestrating a disinformation campaign worthy of Project Mayhem, the anarchist movement from his 1999 masterpiece.
Recent weeks have seen stories emerge that suggested Fincher would be remaking Squid Game, the hit South Korean Netflix show as an English language film. Just a few days ago, a story appeared that claimed he would be making a western next titled Bitteroot, modelled after the style of Clint Eastwood’s 1992 classic, Unforgiven. Oh, and it doesn’t seem like that long ago since reports suggested that his next film would be a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train.
According to World Of Reel, the latest story does indeed indicate that Fincher’s next project will be a Hitchcock remake, but perhaps not the one we expected. The outlet is claiming that the filmmaker is in fact working on a remake of Rope, Hitchcock’s 1948 thriller that follows two men who elect to murder somebody as a kind of philosophical exercise, simply to prove their intellectual superiority by getting away with it.
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The film is memorable for lots of reasons, including Hitchcock’s decision to hide the film’s cuts, meaning it plays like one single, uninterrupted camera shot. Jimmy Stewart puts in an excellent performance in a film which would contribute to Hitchcock earning the styling of the ‘Master of Suspense.’
Should this report prove to be accurate, it sounds like Fincher is working with some top talent. Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight is said to have written the script, whilst Charlize Theron is set to star. We can definitely see Theron in the Jimmy Stewart role should this project happen, but given the deluge of potential Fincher projects we’ve heard about of late, it has to be firmly placed in the ‘rumours’ pile.
As of right now then, Fincher potentially has Squid Game: America (or whatever it may be called), his Robert Towne-penned Chinatown prequel, the aforementioned Bitterroot and an untitled crime thriller which is probably Rope, perhaps even Strangers On A Train too. Hopefully he’ll reveal his next project soon and we can all get on with looking forward to it rather than guessing as to what’s coming next.
