Italian Thriller The Double Hour Getting American Remake

Giuseppe Capotondi’s Italian thriller The Double Hour, which played the 2009 Venice and Toronto International film festivals, starred Filippo Timi as an ex-cop who meets a beauty (Ksenia Rappoport) during a speed-dating session. But the duo encounters serious troubles when they retreat to a country cottage, and secrets from her dark past begin to surface. Samuel Goldwyn Films released the foreign film in the States, but it never made it beyond the art-house circuit, which means most reading this probably missed it.

Never fear, however, as Hollywood plans a U.S. remake (which seems to be the industry’s favorite new trend). The Hollywood Reporter says that Joshua Marston, writer/director of the indie drug drama Maria Full of Grace, will pen a treatment for a Double Hour remake, which Roy Lee and Nicola Giuliano will produce.

The trade offers very few details beyond the announcement that the project’s moving forward. Will the location remain in Italy, or will the action shift to the U.S., as is the case with the announced American remakes of such international hits as District B13 or The Secret In Their Eyes, with Denzel Washington in the lead role.

I’m less opposed to U.S. remakes of under-the-radar foreign films than I am to lazy prequels and sequels, if only because smaller theaters in cities outside of New York and Los Angeles aren’t given the chance to program edgier international hits, so American audiences have no chance of seeing some great stories on screen. And if handled properly, a U.S. remake of a foreign hit could even get into the annual Oscar race, as is the case with David Fincher’s upcoming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo interpretation. Lets’ see which director lands the Double Hour gig, and who he or she decides to hire for the film.