The first images of the anticipated thriller The Girl on a Train have turned up, courtesy of EW. The film- adapted from Paula Hawkin’s best-selling novel- stars Emily Blunt (Sicario) as Rachel, the anguished eponymous character. Tate (The Help) directs from a screenplay credited to Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary)
The story centers around Rachel Watson, unemployed and an alcoholic, who becomes obsessed with a couple she encounters on her daily train ride. Fantasized in her mind as the perfect couple (played by Furious 7‘s Luke Evans and The Equalizer‘s Haley Bennett), tensions build after Rachel lays witness to an act of betrayal followed by the disappearance of the young woman. Justin Theroux (The Leftovers) plays Rachel’s ex-husband and Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) plays his new wife. The ensemble cast is rounded out by Édgar Ramirez (Joy), Lisa Kudrow (Neighbors) and Allison Janney (a Tate Taylor regular having appeared in both The Help and, briefly, in the directors’ James Brown bio Get On Up).
Echoes of Gone Girl– Gillian Flynn’s best-selling mystery that David Fincher brought to the screen in 2014- are abound. This is also a female-centered mystery revolving around a perhaps-unstable, yet powerful character. Something which might hit onto Blunt’s current wheelhouse as the Golden Globe winning Brit has anchored and scored critically with recent movies like Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and Sicario. Blunt is next set to appear on screen in The Huntsman Winter’s War, the sequel to Snow White and Huntsman due in theaters in April.
There are plenty worse comparisons around as the film adaptation of Gone Girl earned over $350 million in worldwide box office receipts and snagged an Oscar nomination for Rosamund Pike‘s alluring lead performance. The Girl on the Train even has a very-Gone Girl release date- the film will open in theaters on October 7, 2016.
Check out the stills of The Girl on the Train below.