Stephen Frears to Remake His 1984 Film THE HIT

Director Stephen Frears, screenwriter Peter Prince, and producer Jeremy Thomas are planning to North Americanize their 1984 British gangster flick The Hit.  The original film centered on two hitmen (John Hurt and Tim Roth) who are tasked with executing a mob informant (Terence Stamp in one of the best performance of his career), but the attempt to bring him from his Spanish hideaway to Paris is constantly derailed due to the hitmen’s incompetence.  It’s one of Frears’ best and you check out the excellent Criterion Collection DVD.

Thomas tells Variety that the remake is still in the early stages of development, but the plan is to move the setting to Mexico and the U.S.  “The idea is to make it as an American movie about an American gangster, to tell the story against the backdrop of the land of cinema,” says Thomas.  Frears’ latest film, Lay the Favorite (starring Rebecca Hall, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Bruce Willis) will premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in January.  Hit the jump to check out a trailer for The Hit.