With David Fincher getting ready to unveil his take on the acclaimed “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” just two years after the popular (but not so hot) Swedish version, it seems Hollywood has found a new niche to exploit: English-language versions of popular foreign films (okay, so maybe it’s not that new). Back in 2008, Guillaume Canet‘s French thriller “Tell No One” was blowing away American critics and audiences as well as becoming one of the biggest foreign hits that year at the box office. Talks of a remake weren’t far behind, and last year Andrew Dominik (“Chopper,” “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford“) was reported to be writing it. Well, it seems that didn’t come to pass but the remake is still very much on the way.
Deadline reports that Ben Affleck is now attached to direct “Tell No One” with Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures picking up the rights. Based on the book by best-selling author Harlan Coben, the film revolves around a doctor who, after is wife vanishes, is at first suspected of having murdered his wife but then begins to receive clues that she may in fact still be alive. Canet’s film is a nifty, taut little piece of work that already has won widespread acclaim so we’re not sure what the point of a remake here is unless the filmmakers take a page from Fincher and decide to change some elements of the source material (the ‘Dragon Tattoo’ ending has been changed for the forthcoming film).
As Mike Fleming notes, before Canet’s version, the project was set up at Sony back in 2002 with “Star Trek” scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci set to write it. Obviously that didn’t happen. Now Chris Terrio — who has penned Affleck’s upcoming “Argo” — will adapt the book, so while you wait for this version to get in front of cameras, you have plenty of time to catch up on the original. You can check out the trailer for Canet’s film below. But seriously Affleck, you’re a talented director who has gotten behind some great material so far — you can do better than this.