UPDATE [24/09/20]: The Guilty has been acquired by Netflix for US$30 million and will be available to stream sometime in 2021.
There are some projects that live and breathe hype. Projects that are practically formulas for an instant hit. Take the upcoming remake of 2018 Danish drama film The Guilty, for example.
In terms of leading talent, we have the magnetic Jake Gyllenhaal – an actor so worthy of our attention, I’ve taken the time to memorise the correct spelling for his surname. Behind the camera, we have none other than Antoine Fuqua, who has directed such gritty releases as Training Day. And as for the script, the pages have been adapted by the creator of True Detective, Nic Pizzolatto. Yes, it almost sounds too good to be true.
“I couldn’t be more excited to work with Antoine again,” says Gyllenhaal.
“Our time together on Southpaw was one of the great artistic experiences of my career, and I cannot wait to be back on set with him again. The Guilty is a special story, and one that we all feel very close to.”
The synopsis is as follows: sidelined police officer Joe Bayler (Gyllenhaal) finds himself working at an emergency dispatch. Bayler receives a distressed 911 call from a woman who has been kidnapped by her husband. Bound to his station, he must remotely “marshall the resources at his disposal” to save the kidnapped woman over the course of a single morning without ever leaving. But Bayler soon discovers nothing is quite as it seems…
Principal photography kicked off in November of 2020, adding the likes of Ethan Hawke, Peter Sarsgaard, Riley Keough, Paul Dano, and Bill Burr to the cast. While it has been confirmed that Netflix will distribute the final product, there’s still no official word on a hard release date, nor any further scheduling details.
The original version of The Guilty was a film which not only caught the attention of many at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, but released to universal critical acclaim. A taut, tense, and intelligent bit of cinema, personally, I highly recommend checking it out before delving into the US remake. Check out the original Danish trailer below.
