The Thin Man: Margot Robbie & Brad Pitt in talks to co-produce remake of classic comedy mystery

Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment and Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment are in talks to co-produce a remake of classic 1934 comedy mystery The Thin Man.

Based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as a husband and wife who team up to solve a murder and host a dinner party attended by all the suspects. The film was a huge success upon release, even scoring several Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor. Five sequels followed, including After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home, and Song of the Thin Man.

The third star of The Thin Man and its sequel was Asta, the couple’s Wire Fox Terrier. At the time, the breed wasn’t overly popular in the United States, but the films quickly led to a huge demand for the breed.

Hollywood has been attempting to get a remake of The Thin Man off the ground for quite some time. Rob Marshall was previously attached to direct a remake over a decade ago for Warner Bros. which was set to star Johnny Depp. However, the project didn’t move forward and the studio scrapped it in 2012.

“What makes the film so entertaining is not the unraveling of the murder but the movie’s central relationship of Nora and Nick Charles, one that redefined the screen depiction of marriage,” wrote Rob Nixon and Margarita Landazuri for TCM. “It also helped to set the tone and style of a new, then-emerging Hollywood genre – the screwball comedy.“

LuckyChap and Plan B have been pursuing the rights to The Thin Man franchise since before the WGA strike began back in May. If the deal comes together, the next step will be to find a writer, but as the SAG-AFTRA strike is still ongoing, any discussions of who will star in The Thin Man remake will have to wait.