It’s Only a Bloody Game

One can’t help but lament Hollywood’s tendency to remake what were arguably decent old films (such as Planet of the Apes, Shaft, Get Carter, Around the World in 80 Days, The Poseidon Adventure, etc.) into appalling box-office trash. Every once in a while, though, a classic--say, Scarface or King Kong (at least in the 2005 Peter Jackson version)--somehow manages to slip through the remaking buzz saw without significant harm being caused to the source material, or disgust being generated by the modern version.

We can only hope that the latter fate is in store for Kenneth Branagh’s intended remake of Sleuth, the splendid, 1972 movie adaptation of Anthony Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play of the same name, starring Michael Caine and Sir Laurence Olivier. “For those who don’t remember the movie,” writes Scott Weinberg at Cinematical, “it’s about a veteran writer [of detective novels] and a hotshot young actor who spend one twist-filled weekend at a fancy English manor--but the actor’s been canoodling the writer’s wife ... and the writer knows it.” What might rescue this remake from ignominy, Weinberg suggests, is not only actor-director Branagh’s participation, but the fact “that Mr. Caine will, of course, be stepping into the role originally played by Olivier, while Mr. [Jude] Law (who has wanted to make this flick for a long time, apparently) will be playing Caine’s old role”--itself an interesting twist.

Branagh’s Sleuth is expected in theaters come 2008.