What is it with classic German visionary Fritz Lang? This is the third remake of one of his great films which has been put into development over the last couple of months, with remakes to WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS and METROPOLIS and now his 1956 RKO noir classic BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT. Don't you just think studio's get an obsession with directors sometimes? It's happening with John Carpenter right now and Cronenberg too with remakes to THE BROOD, THE FLY and SCANNERS on the horizon. So Foresight Unlimited are the studio behind the latest Lang remake, with Michael Douglas set to lead. Ok, it sucks... but Douglas is a classic dark actor who Lang would usually go for so top marks there but unbelievably Amber Tamblyn and Jesse Metcalfe are also on board, two actors of a mould Lang would NEVER consider.
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Lang's classic film starring the great Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine follows the story of a journalist who investigates a corrupt D.A. in relation to a murder case, but of course finds himself setup as the killer. It's a really great movie and very similar in tone to WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS and is one of the director's more accessible films. Peter Hyams, the director of such crap as END OF DAYS, THE RELIC and TIME COP will adapt the original script for a remake before butchering it behind the lens too. Hyams is a B-Movie director, who sometimes gets his hands on big stars and big projects but is only capable of churning out crap after crap. HOWEVER. If there is one shred of hope it's this. In 1990 he directed a remake of a classic Richard Fleischer RKO movie titled THE NARROW MARGIN, and he did a pretty fine job with it too. It's easily his most accomplished work and although helped along by a classic cast that included Gene Hackman, Anne Archer and M. Emmet Walsh... he actually didn't make a movie that disrespected the original. Filming is set to begin March 3rd. Now we just await news of a remake to M... what a horrible thought that is! source - variety