This morning, fans of both Patricia Highsmith and Dame Helen Mirren have cause to rejoice. The trailer for Anton Corbijn’s new Ripley-adjacent film, A Taste for Murder, is out now.
The film stars Alden Ehrenreich, Olivia Cooke, and an almost unrecognizable Helen Mirren. It follows a thirsty agent (Ehrenreich) who heads to the Swiss hinterlands to convince Highsmith (Mirren!) to write one last installment of her famous Ripley series. But things—as they tend to, in the Highsmith universe—take a dark turn.
Here’s the trailer.
A Talent for Murder is itself an adaptation, of the 2014 play Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith. Switzerland imagines Highsmith as a recluse in the Alps, closely guarding a cache of weapons and secrets after a lifetime spent writing mysteries.
The play enjoyed runs in Bristol, Sydney, and Los Angeles. Murray-Smith is adapting her own script for the screen version.
This project joins a long line of Ripley adaptations. A bevy of international auteurs—including René Clément, Wim Wenders, and Anthony Minghella—have taken a pass at old Tom and his creator. The dark-hearted con man last received the screen treatment in a Netflix adaptation starring Andrew Scott. But we’re originalists, over here.
One thing’s certain. It will be exciting to see how a focus on Highsmith can draw some fresh blood from this story, which historically hinges on the magnetic cipher at its center. And obviously, we’ve gotta see what Dame Helen’s up to.
Look for the film in theaters on October 23.
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