I ranked Gone Girl as my #17 movie of the year in my Top 145 Movies of 2014. I am a fan of Ben Affleck other than when he is in a movie with JLo. David Fincher is even in my top five all time favorite directors. Gillian Flynn wrote a great book and screenplay. But I do not want them to make their next rumored movie together!
Fincher looks set to get the band back together to remake the Alfred Hitchcock classic, Strangers on a Train.
Though the Hitchcock remake–a Warner Bros library title and an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel–will be its basis, this film will be contemporary and redefined for the times. This one might be best titled Strangers On A Plane, as Affleck will play a variation of the role played by Farley Granger of a tennis pro who is bored with his marriage and wants to get divorced, but instead gets entwined with a wealthy socialite psycho who proposes the notion of exchanging murders. The twist here is a compelling one. Affleck will play a movie star–in the middle of a campaign for an Oscar during awards season–whose private plane breaks down and is given a ride to LA on another plane by a wealthy stranger. In Fincher’s hands, who knows how that goes, but it sure does seem like fertile ground.
I love Fincher, and trust him completely, but this is a sacred cow for me. Strangers on the Train is THE best movie of one of the most amazing directors ever. And this is a man who has a catalog of awesome movies!
With apologies to Rear Window, Vertigo, and the masterpiece of horror that was Psycho, which had a shot by shot remake starring Vince Vaughn*, Strangers’ was by far the most frightening because its scares were more psychological than deadly. You never really jumped so much as quivered.
No matter how good this film is, it will never capture the pure creepiness of the tennis match scene where everyone’s heads are moving back and forth like they are…well….watching a tennis match, but Robert Walker’s eyes are laser locked on Farley Granger. The only scene in cinema history that was scarier was when Anakin pitched woo at Padme in Attack of the Clones.
* Yeah. That was a thing.
Gabbing Geek 
One thought on “A Brilliant Team Is Remaking a Classic That Shouldn’t Be Touched”