Being remade with Ben Affleck :(
UGHHH...
shareWhy oh why does Hollywood try to remake the classics? Like Psycho and Casablanca, Strangers on a Train doesn't need to be "done over." And even if the job is to be attempted, why are these remakes generally so unremarkable and vastly inferior to the originals? The only way to make a halfway decent "new" version would be (1) to hire the best writers available and produce a close, faithful adaptation of Highsmith's brilliant novel (which Hitch couldn't do, being constrained by Hollywood censorship of the 1950's); and (2) hire high profile actors but focus on talent over superficial looks. I would also suggest highlighting Bruno's mental illness, his homo-erotic obsession with Guy and the gradual disintegration of Guy's own morality in the struggle to escape. Do all that and you might have a psychological thriller fully as good, in its own way, as the original. But would glitzy, shallow Hollywood execs even bother to take all that trouble with a remake? Not bloody likely!
shareIt was already remade once, as "Once You Kiss a Stranger" (1969) with Carol Lynley.
The best (only?) way to remake it well, is not to remake Hitchcock's movie, but go back to the Patricia Highsmith novel and make that the movie. The novel is quite different.
Which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?
There are no great screen writer's in Hollywood. They all died long ago.
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