Man on the Train

[Jeremy Blackman]

then I'll probably go rent Girl On The Bridge, since I've been meaning to see it forever.

In my opinion that's the greatest love story I've ever seen. And not for the usual reasons.

I just got back from seeing it tonight.  It's ... very weird, very unique.  There's not a film like it, but I kept getting a bit of a Persona vibe, and a Cet obscur objet du desir (That Obscure Object of Desire) vibe from it.

I kept thinking of Red, actually.

Patrice Leconte is quickly becoming one of my favorite filmmakers.

He's definitely one of mine. But I was a little disappointed.

I was pretty unsatisfied with the cinematography... it really looked like DV.

Great concept, great story, great acting... but it didn't have the usual Leconte follow-through, and it was edited so shabbily (especially the very end) that it was hard to believe it was a Leconte film. It could have been so much more.

Good music, though.

[MacGuffin]

American Makeover

According to the Hollywood Reporter, 2002’s “Man on the Train” from French director Patrice Leconte will be remade by Bob Cooper's Landscape Entertainment (MGM’s “Sleepover”).

Screenwriter Harley Peyton, whose credits include "Less Than Zero," "Bandits" and "Twin Peaks," has been tapped to pen the English-language adaptation.

The original film, which was distributed last year in the United States by Paramount Classics, follows two men (opposites in every way) who decide that the other man's life is the one they want.

[MacGuffin]

Miramax lines up 'Train' remake
Billy Bob Thornton circling project
Source: Hollywood Reporter

NEW YORK -- Miramax is producing an English remake of Patrice LeConte's French drama "Man on the Train" with writer Daniel Taplitz and producer Bob Cooper.

Thomas Bezucha ("The Family Stone") is in negotiations to direct the tale of a drifter casing a conservative small town for a bank robbery. The man befriends an elderly professor who seeks to energize his life by becoming his partner in crime.

Billy Bob Thornton is said to be circling the project, but no actors have been set. It's hoped that production will begin this year once a cast is locked down.

Taplitz ("Chaos Theory") is adapting Claude Klotz's original screenplay to the 2002 film, which was released domestically by Paramount Classics. It won the Venice Film Festival award for best film and best actor (Jean Rochefort).

The project is Miramax's latest stab at a foreign film remake. The company also is heading into production with an adaptation of the Italian drama "Everybody's Fine" with Robert De Niro.