Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier has a number of compelling dramas under her belt, including the Oscar-nominated After the Wedding. And with her current feature, In a Better World, the favorite to take home Oscar gold on Sunday in the Best Foreign Language Film category, Bier has boldly revealed she intends to remake the four-time César-nominated kidnapping drama, Rapt.
According to Deadline, she and In a Better World writer, Anders Thomas Jensen, have nearly completed the screenplay, and production will begin before year’s end. Smuggler Films, who’ve spawned Revolutionary Road and Boys Don’t Cry, will be producing the remake; so one can assume it will be in English. For those unfamiliar with the French thriller, it was based on a real kidnapping case and centers on the abduction of a corporate chairman and how his family, his corporation, and the police were pitted against each other when his secrets were exposed by the blood-thirsty media. Producer Patrick Milling Smith had this to say of the proposed remake:
The underlying story is definitely a high stakes thriller but at its core it is about human struggle. We have a real character drama in this story with people fighting for survival while seeing their finely balanced worlds thrown into chaos. Susanne has shown in her very special films the delicate hand she has in bringing out the truth and humanity in the most challenging of situations.
There is no projected release date for Bier’s remake, but the original Rapt will open in the U.S. on July 12, 2011, while In A Better World will hit theaters in a limited release on April 1, 2011.
In the meantime, you can check out the trailer for In A Better World, courtesy of Yahoo:
Synopsis:
Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. Anton and his wife Marianne, who have two young sons, are separated and struggling with the possibility of divorce. Their older, ten-year-old son Elias is being bullied at school, until he is defended by Christian, a new boy who has just moved from London with his father, Claus. Christian’s mother recently lost her battle with cancer, and Christian is greatly troubled by her death. Elias and Christian quickly form a strong bond, but when Christian involves Elias in a dangerous act of revenge with potentially tragic consequences, their friendship is tested and lives are put in danger. Ultimately, it is their parents who are left to help them come to terms with the complexity of human emotions, pain and empathy.
And here’s a look at Rapt’s French trailer. (Sorry those who parlez-vous non francais!)
Do you think Bier will be a good fit for the Rapt remake? Do you plan to see the original? Are you intrigued by In a Better World’s trailer?