David Fincher and Ben Affleck to remake Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train”

Warner Bros. is hoping that the team from Gone Girl  can produce another hit, by remaking Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train from 1951.

News that is both incredibly shocking yet seems par for the course, Deadline exclusively reported that Ben Affleck and David Fincher will be coming back together to try and remake Strangers on a Train.

The duo did incredibly well for Warner Bros. with Gone Girl bringing in $350 million on a budget of $60 million, so from a purely money  based outlook the remake idea does seem smart. Of course, the script, a novel adaptation, that Gillian Flynn wrote for Gone Girl played a huge part in the films success, so no surprise that he will be joining this production to adapt the original script, itself an novel adaptation.

Early talks of the film look to have the title shortened down to simply “Strangers”, due to the cutting out of the train since trains certainly aren’t the most common mass transit system in the United States anymore. When this adaptation finally makes its way to theaters we can only assume that Guy and Bruno will meet on an airplane instead of a train like in Hitchcock’s version.

Other than the three names involved thus far we know nothing else about this remake. A date has not been set, a shooting schedule hasn’t been laid out, and the role of Anne Morton doesn’t even have rumors swirling around it.

Honestly, I was incredibly disappointed to see that these creators would dip into the well of remakes, especially Hitchcock. Why not write a new story with the same idea instead of creating a remake? Horrible Bosses certainly took themes from Strangers on a Train, but at leat they turned it into a comedy and made it their own.

Fincher is a highly capable director so it seems a massive waste to try and remake a film by one of the most celebrated directors in film history.

A massive conversation about the nature of remakes and why it only seems to happen in film (and TV) certainly can take place and it works best when you get in on the action. Take to the comments and give your thoughts about this remake of Strangers on a Train.

via Deadline