Jeremy here...
Otto Preminger's LAURA is one of Hollywood's all-time great murder mysteries - a stylish and gloriously twisted tale of a man who falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating. And if you think that's a great hook, you don't know the half of it. It's a bizarre kind of perfection that only Preminger could pull off, and not exactly the type of material a studio should be eager to revisit; the whole endeavor could easily topple into camp with the wrong screenwriter/director combination.
But 20th Century Fox is plowing forward anyway! According to The Hollywood Reporter, they've enlisted the noir-writing expertise of James Ellroy, who typically can't dabble in this milieu without slathering on a heaping helping of extreme violence and sadism. I love many of Ellroy's novels, but is he the right guy to take on LAURA?
I guess that depends on what kind of LAURA they're making, and as of right now, without a director attached, it's hard to say what that will be. Ellroy would certainly be comfortable writing in period, but is that what Fox wants? All I'm willing to say for sure is that they'll definitely bring in a major recording star to warble a new version of David Raksin's theme. As for finding a cast to match the brilliance of Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb and Vincent Motherfucking Price? Good luck with that!
