Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I’ve always loved Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels, and there always seems to be someone trying to bring one of the books to the screen. PURPLE NOON and THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY have pretty much covered one book, while THE AMERICAN FRIEND and RIPLEY’S GAME seem to have covered another. So what’s left? Well, quite a bit, actually, and according to today’s scooper, we’re in for a new one very soon:
Hi Harry,
Jim over in London here. Got some info on the latest film about Tom Ripley if you're interested.
Personally, I love the Tom Ripley films. So far four have been made by different filmmakers with totally different perspectives and each has been pretty damn cool in it's own right.
Back in the 60's, Alain Delon played it cooler than ice in Plein Soleil. In the 80's, Dennis Hopper brought his trademark Hopperisms to the role in The American Friend. Then in the last few years, Anthony Minghella did a bang-up job on The Talented Mr Ripley and, I think, should have taken an Oscar home for pointing Matt Damon to the kind of role he should play more of, as opposed to looking bored playing vengeance-seeking angels in Kevin Smith films. Most recently, we've had John Malkovich playing an older, wiser Ripley opposite Ray "The Daddy" Winstone in Ripley's Game.
Now in production is 'White On White', an adaptation of 'Ripley Underground'. In case you haven't read the book, the story centres around Ripley's attempts to make himself richer in the art world by concealing the death of an upcoming artist in order to ensure his paintings are sold on to galleries before the news becomes public. The artist's corpse is housed in a freezer until the time is right for an announcement to be made and several characters are sworn to secrecy. Naturally, the plan doesn't go smoothly resulting in several double-crosses and murders. If any cynics are thinking 'Weekend At Bernies with delusions of grandeur', my advice is to stop being so cynical and read the book for yourselves.
The script starts off well with Ripley preparing to marry Heloise, a French woman he meets at the artist's latest exhibition. As preperations are made for the wedding ceremony in the garden of his home, Ripley notices a human hand protruding from the ground and covers it up, reminding us that Ripley is still amoral as we know him to be. We then flashback to the exhibition where Ripley meets his bride-to-be (after removing her boyfriend from the scene) and makes his first move. The story then continues from there with the plot unfolding in the elongated flashback.
The book is now set in Modern day London and has been updated accordingly, ie. The artist, Derwatt, is now selling his works to the Tate Modern. This Ripley is younger than the recent Malkovich version and is to be played by Barry Pepper of Saving Private Ryan and - cough, cough! - Battlefield Earth fame. But, hey, don't hold that against him, he was good in Private Ryan and Enemy Of The State.
The rest of the cast includes Clare Forlani (Mallrats, Meet joe Black), Ian Hart (Backbeat, Enemy Of The State) and Douglas Henshall as the doomed artist Derwatt.
Taking on directign duties is Roger Spottiswoode, a director who, for me, can have good days (The Pursuit Of D.B Cooper, Tomorrow Never Dies) and bad days (Air America, The Sixth Day). To give him credit, he does have good attention to detail and is working with strong material here, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt.
Hope this is of some interest.
Excellent stuff. Thanks, man. I look forward to seeing how this comes together in the months ahead.
"Moriarty" out.
