The Long Good Friday is probably the seminal British crime movie. It has dazzling performances from Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, plus a small role for a young Pierce Brosnan. Sure, it belongs to a certain era - the London it represents really isn’t the same anymore - nevertheless it is still a vital piece of British filmmaking and I can’t see the point in remaking it.

Paul W(hat) S(script?) Anderson thinks otherwise.

He’s been working on his own version of the film for some time now and according to Empire, HandMade Films (the George Harrison owned company behind the original) picked him for the remake over Martin Scorsese!

“I had a take on it that they really liked and I think they knew that I would respect the original movie enough to keep the essence of the original film,” says Anderson.

This film will relocate the action to Miami which will understandably mean the IRA won’t feature so prominently:-

“It’s not the IRA in ours, but it is another terrorist organisation, and we’re doing it in Miami, so we’re re-imagining it for America. Otherwise the story beats and characters will pretty much play out. It will have the same human cortège scene at the start; the spitting in the face; he’s been away somewhere, but it won’t have been to New York…I think the script [of the original film], Barrie Keeffe’s original screenplay, is so good. And the story is a great story with a great twist in it. And it’s pretty remarkable that your lead character is a gangster and you really root for him. I think it’s a great movie for a remake, because outside of the UK it’s virtually unknown and it was very much a movie of its time. It really captured that London of that time in the same way we’re hopefully going to capture Miami of right now”.

I actually think Anderson makes some valid points, he’s always been able to talk a good game but has proven time and time again he can’t back it up. I’m very sceptical and this will be on my avoid list unless I hear positive things.

The best course of action would be to drop the title, forget it’s a remake and just make a cracking gangster film “inspired by” The Long Good Friday. This remake will start on shaky ground as not many will be able to see past the original.

source - empire