Having all but disappeared from view after starring in the four-season run of Prison Break – the Resident Evil franchise notwithstanding – Wentworth Miller is now re-emerging into the spotlight as a talent with many strings to his bow. The most intriguing of those strings is screenwriting, which he will next demonstrate with the adaptation of the French thriller, With A Friend Like Harry – originally titled Harry, He’s Here To Help for its French release.
The original film – released in 2000 – was written and directed by Dominick Moll, with Gilles Marchand as co-writer, and Laurent Lucas, Sergi Lopez and Mathilde Seigner in the lead roles. The story – as will be presented in this US remake – sees a man named Harry approach a put-upon man at a rest-stop, claiming to be his former high-school classmate. He gives convincing detail and information to support his story but, over time, his fixation with the man takes a sinister turn, as he tempts him out of the restrictive life he has made for himself.
The remake rights have been acquired by Focus Features, with Michelle Krumm (The Spectacular Now) producing, alongside Maven Pictures’ Trudie Styler and Celine Rattray (Filth). A director for the project has yet to be attached, since Kimberley Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry) exited, stage left. At this early development stage, however, it is the involvement of Wentworth Miller as screenwriter that make this interesting. His first screenplay – Stoker – featured on the 2010 Black List before being filmed by director Park Chan-Wook, with Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode in the starring roles. Far from being a vanity project, Miller wrote the original script under the pseudonym Ted Foulke, in order to allow it to “sink or swim” on its own merits. Swim it did, with Miller also acting as co-producer on the final film.
Miller is now, unsurprisingly, sought-after as a writer-for-hire – as well as being cast as Captain Cold in CW’s The Flash, and featuring in the recent trailer for the upcoming ensemble film, The Loft. In terms of writing, his tendency toward darker, more psychologically challenging themes would seem to make him a great choice for With A Friend Like Harry.
Stay tuned for more updates, as we keep a keen eye on the development of this project.
Published: Aug 2, 2014 07:59 am