Ripley Teaser Has Murder on its Mind
Time to start pretending to be somebody else. Earlier today, Netflix released a teaser for Ripley, the upcoming thriller series created, written, and directed by Steven Zaillian and based on Patricia Highsmith’s novels featuring Tom Ripley. The first season of the show is based on the first Ripley book, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and finds Tom Ripley hired to bring a rich man’s son, Dickie Greenleaf, home from a decadent sojourn in Italy, only for Ripley to grow so enamored with Dickie’s lifestyle that he resorts to lies, impersonation, and murder to usurp and maintain it. Presumably, future seasons will adapt the other Ripley novels. Andrew Scott starts as Tom Ripley, with Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf, Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood, and John Malkovich in another role. Ripley’s first season will arrive on Netflix on April 4, 2024, and will run for eight episodes. You can see the Ripley teaser below:
I’m very much looking forward to Ripley. I haven’t read any of Patricia Highsmith’s books (although I’ve got a couple I’m saving for a vacation), but I adore Anthony Minghella’s film adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley from 1999 with Matt Damon as Tom Ripley. I’m open to seeing a new version – the Minghella movie was the second of The Talented Mr. Ripley (or third if you count an episode of the anthology TV show Studio One), and subsequent books have also made it to the screen – and that teaser is enticing. I like the idea of filming it in black and white; The Talented Mr. Ripley goes to some dark places, and making it black and white could be helpful in showing the evil bubbling inside Ripley. It’s also a way of getting around the fact that it will probably never look as gorgeous as the Minghella film. Andrew Scott is an interesting choice to play Ripley; I hate his version of Moriarty on Sherlock, but I’ve liked him in other things, and I look forward to seeing how he’ll portray Ripley. The rest of the cast doesn’t mean much to me, which isn’t to say they’re bad choices, just that I’m not overly familiar with them. The exception is John Malkovich, who is always great and whose casting is a bit of an inside joke; he actually played Tom Ripley in the movie adaptation of another book in Highsmith’s series, Ripley’s Game (which was fantastic). That this series comes from Steven Zaillian is even more enticing; Zailian wrote some great movies, like Clear and Present Danger, Hannibal, The Interpreter (a forgotten film you should check out), The Irishman, Moneyball, American Gangster, and… you know… Schindler’s List. I may have to read the book soon because I really want to see Ripley.
