Brian De Palma is back and finds his Passion

When’s the last time Brian De Palma made a genuinely great film? I love him (though I’d say he’s a very polarizing filmmaker; I see little middle-ground when it comes to what film fans think of him) and I’ve been on a kick of his lately since recently picking up the Criterion Blu-ray of his 1981 masterpiece BLOW OUT. So I’ve been wondering that as I’ve been re-watching his older stuff.

But anyway, it looks like De Palma’s coming back after not having made a film since 2007’s REDACTED. According to Variety, the film is called PASSION, a remake of last year’s CRIME D’AMOUR from French filmmaker Alain Corneau which starred Kristin Scott Thomas (De Palma’s own MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE) and Ludivine Sagnier (the MESRINE films). I haven’t seen the original, but as Devin Faraci over at Badass Digest points out, it’s supposed to be sort of like DANGEROUS LIAISONS meets WORKING GIRL. Here’s De Palma with a little more, via Variety:

“Not since ‘Dressed to Kill’ have I had a chance to combine eroticism, suspense, mystery and murder into one spellbinding cinematic experience.”

PASSION is budgeted at $30 million and is expected begin production this August.