Papillon (French for “butterfly”), the 1973 classic starring screen legend Steve McQueen, is getting a remake. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Danish director Michael Noer (Northwest) is set to helm the feature, with a new screenplay by Aaron Guzikowski (Prisoners).
The original movie was based on Henri “Papillon” Charriere’s memoir detailing his unjust imprisonment in the 1930s, and his subsequent prison break with the assistance of a quirky counterfeiter whom he met along the way. McQueen played the title character, and Dustin Hoffman played the counterfeiter in the original, which was nominated for a Best Original Score Oscar.
Red Granite’s Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland, who were behind The Wolf of Wall Street, are producing along with Ram Bergman and Roger Corbi. Executive producing are David Koplan, Yan-Fischer-Romanovsky, Joshua D. Maurer, Terrence Chang and Martin Hellstern.
An award-winning documentarian, Noer’s directing debut feature was also about prison life, 2010’s Danish/Arabic-language film, R. He followed up with Northwest in 2013, a gang drama in Danish, which won several awards on the festival circuit.
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