Variety is reporting that Mike NIchols has signed up for his first film since Charlie Wilson’s War. He’ll be taking on Deep Water, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel. The book is about a couple in a loveless marriage, where the wife allows the husband to sleep around. However the tension begins to rise when those lovers start dying.
Joe Penhall has been hired to write the script for the adaptation, having recently completed work on the big screen version of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron.
Hollywood seems to love Patricia Highsmith, even though recent adaptations, such as Ripley’s Game and Ripley Under Ground, haven’t done too well, although Anthony Minghella’s 1999 adaptation of The Talented Mr RIpley, starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, did pretty well. However she didn’t just write Tom Ripley stories, as Highsmith was also behind the book that became Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train, as well as writing numerous othe novels.
Nichols involvement continues his love of picking wildly disparate movies. His career has ranged from broad comedy in The Birdcage, to horror with Wolf, drama with Silkwood and Closer, as well as being behind classics like The Graduate. He a fascinating director and it’ll be interesting to see what he does in full-on thriller territory.