As distasteful as the idea of remaking one of Alfred Hitchcock's best may be, knowing that it was in the hands of David Fincher, Gillian Flynn, and Ben Affleck made the whole idea a little more palatable. It was January of this year when we first learned of the intentions of the GONE GIRL team of moving ahead with a remake of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN; however as the trio have found their schedule's growing increasingly crowded it may be quite some time before the remake will see the light of day. Screenwriter Gillian Flynn said as much in a recent chat with Vulture:
We’re all so overcommitted right now that we’ll see on that one.
Among the multitude of upcoming projects the team have on the go is the upcoming HBO series Utopia, which will see Gillian Flynn reuniting with David Fincher and writing each episode. Gillian Flynn will also be writing a film for 12 YEARS A SLAVE director Steve McQueen called WIDOWS which is about four mob widows who attempt to pull off the same heist which killed their husbands. As far as Ben Affleck's schedule goes, we know that he will be quite busy playing Bruce Wayne/Batman in the DC Cinematic Universe, but he will also be shooting LIVE BY NIGHT later this year.
As we reported earlier in the year, the STRANGERS ON A TRAIN remake will be updated in an interesting way:
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.
Do you want to see a STRANGERS ON A TRAIN remake from David Fincher, Gillian Flynn, and Ben Affleck, or are you hoping that their schedules remain too full for it to become a reality?