There will be a third adaptation of the crime novel The Getaway, published in 1958 by author Jim Thompson, set as the second remake of Sam Peckinpah’s first re-telling from 1972, adapted for the big screen by Walter Hill. The updated version of the crime story is set to be released on Netflix and will see director Philip Barantini (Adolescence) join creative forces with screenwriter Peter Craig (The Town).
Wednesday producer Andrew Mittman is credited on the project, alongside Barantini and Samantha Beddoe. Kai Dolbashian, Rey Reyes and Gregory Cohen are credited as executive producers.
The book was Thompson’s 19th prose and reads as an allegorical work referencing hell and death.
The original 1972 film featured Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Al Lettieri, and Sally Struthers, centring on an imprisoned robber who is released in a corrupted plot to rob a Texas bank with his wife, but when the duo are betrayed, they are forced to flee to Mexico. Despite initial negative reviews, the film now holds a 84% Rotten Tomatoes score from 25 reviews and is considered a quintessential heist flick.
A second adaptation of The Getaway came in 1994, 22 years later, by New Zealand filmmaker Roger Donaldson (Sleeping Dogs) and starred Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Michael Madsen, James Woods, and Jennifer Tilly. Hill returned to adapt the book again with screenwriter Amy Holden Jones (The Slumber Party Massacre), writing another initially poorly received feature (33% on Rotten Tomatoes from 24 reviews) which saw eventual success in the home video market.
Basinger also received a Golden Raspberry nod for Worst Actress at the 15th Golden Rasberyy Awards, and Baldwin hailed the film a “bomb.”
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