Writer Steven Zaillian Talks About ‘Timecrimes’ Remake

With The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Moneyball both landing high on many critics’ end of year lists, I think its safe to say Stephen Zaillian in going to be ringing in the New Year with a lot to be thankful for this year.  The writer worked on the screenplay for both films and has just received a Golden Globe nomination for his screenplay for Moneyball which he wrote with Aaron Sorkin.  Even though it looks like Zaillian will soon be busy with the other two adaptations of the Swedish “Millennium Trilogy,”  he hasn’t lost sight of a project that has long been talked about.  2007’s Timecrimes was an exciting foray into pulp territory with a healthy mix of Philip K. Dick science fiction.  Nacho Vigalondo’s Spanish language feature-length debut has garnered quite a devoted following (including Andy and myself) who praise the film as one of the best science-fiction films in recent years.  In a new interview with Collider, Zallian talks a bit about how he hopes to approach the remake and what changes might be made for his version.

I also have been talking about the possibilities of directing this little film called Timecrimes, which is a movie that we are going to transplant to the United States… I think that would be a lot of fun and I would like to do it fast and cheap because I think that it is one of the few movies because of the way it was conceived you can do that and not sacrifice anything.  It is four characters, two locations, and it all takes place in real time in about an hour and a half.  That would be a lot of fun for me – to try and do something really fast.

In regards to if he would stray from the source material:

I think it will be similar.  The brilliance of that story is in the idea. The basic idea is that a guy relives half an hour of his life three times.  It is such a big idea and a great idea that I’m not going to change that.  The setting will change.  I will co-write in a way that…there is actually a guy called Tim Saxon , who wrote a draft of it.  It will change, but in terms of the big picture and big idea it is going to be the same.

 

I only like the idea of a remake on the grounds that a writer or director can bring something new to the table.  We’ll have to see if Zaillian can do this with his remake of Timecrimes.

Source: Collider