I was absolutely astonished to read that Kenneth Branagh will be directing Michael Caine and Jude Law in a movie remake of SLEUTH, filming to begin in January. (BTW, Branagh is just a hired hand; it's Jude Law's production company who hired Branagh to do the job.)
Now, all three men are talented and wonderful at what they do, and the casting is apt, but this is going to bomb BIG TIME. I can't believe Michael Caine would agree to do it except that he gets the chance to play the other main male role and get to say that he played both parts on film in his lifetime.
But do they honestly think they can improve on the 1972 version? Is there a movie audience out there now who will sit still for such a literate theater piece on film, especially one in which the surprises are all now pretty much known throughout the world through the thousands of productions of the play and the film?
Sorry, DR Matt, but I have to disagree, mainly because I believe your thesis that the film and play are so well known is off.
For a great many of today's filmgoers, which basically means those in their teens and twenties, a film is not significant unless it was made during their lifetimes - even more specifically during the time they would have been going to the movies.
Sleuth was released in 1972, back when I was in college. I am now two to three times the age of the new target audience.
Could they have seen it on television? Perhaps, if they were attracted to films that are that "old." Maybe they could have seen it on DVD. Again, it's that "old" business that defeats that arguement.
And who in their right minds goes to the theater? Look around at the audience next time you go to see a play - if it isn't being staged at a local college, the odds are the majority of those seated will be in their forties or older.
So, yes, the time is right for a remake of
Sleuth. The casting and choice of director sound right. I'm hoping they don't mess around with the script very much, either holding themselves to a few corrections as far as updating it to the present or deliberately setting it in it's original era.
By the way, if you doubt that the younger generation would not have heard of
Sleuth before, consider the following:
When
Poseidon was released a few months back, one of my fellow cashiers was stunned to learn that it was a remake. She had never heard of Shelly Winters, much less her zaftig aquaballet. And she looked at me with wide-eyed wonder when I told her that the song "There's Got to Be a Morning After," which plays daily on our muzak system, was from the original film and had won the Oscar.
