Universal Pictures are keeping the wheels turning behind the scenes by lining up future films to add to their rosters. The latest development sees the giant in line to remake the 1955 thriller ‘The Night of the Hunter’.
Based on the novel by Davis Grubb, the story follows a religious fanatic, con man and murderer who marries a widow, knowing that her deceased husband had hidden $10,000 from authorities following a bank robbery. The widow’s young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the money as the man plots more sinister ways to find where to find the cash.
‘Operation Finale’ scribe, Matt Orton, will pen the script with Peter Gether and Amy Pascal producing through her Universal-based Pascal Pictures.
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The 1955 thriller was directed by Charles Laughton and starred Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish. At the time the film was not a success with either audiences or critics but has since gone on to be described as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Laughton took this commercial failure of his first film personally, and never attempted to make another film.
Orton previously wrote ‘Operation Finale’ which starred Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley. He is currently working on a live-action family film, ‘Knights’ for Disney+.
