Not long ago came the news that filmmaker David Fincher had switched up a project in development over at Netflix, namely swapping out his planned remake of Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train” for a remake of Hitchcock’s similarly iconic “Rope”. That film is one of several Fincher is considering as his potential next effort alongside “Squid Game: America,” a “Chinatown” prequel series,” and the western “Bitterroot”. Now though, reports that “The Imitation Game” and “Passengers” director Morten Tyldum has beaten him to it with the Norwegian filmmaker attached to direct the remake of “Rope” set up at Davis Entertainment.
John Davis will produce the film with Tyldum working from a script by “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight. Knight wrote a prior draft when the project was lined up as a Netflix/Fincher joint. The original 1946 film, based on the stage play of the same name which was inspired by real-life 1920s killers Leopold & Loeb, is set entirely within a New York penthouse apartment.
Two young men strangle a former classmate to death and put the body into a large antique wooden chest in their living room. Determined to prove they committed a perfect murder, they host a dinner party at the apartment with the guests including the dead man’s father, aunt, fiancée, former close friend, and their prep-school master. The production was famous – events take place in real-time with the entire film seen as four long shots made through.
