Universal Pictures is working on a new film adaptation of Davis Grubb’s 1953 thriller The Night of the Hunter, according to Variety—the latest of several Universal films based on classic books, including The Invisible Man and Emma.
Grubb’s novel features an ex-convict and serial murderer named Harry Powell who poses as a preacher and marries the widow of his former cellmate as part of a plot to find out, from her children, where a cache of stolen money is hidden. Soon, the kids are on the run from the killer.
Robert Mitchum played Powell in a well-regarded 1955 film adaptation directed by actor Charles Laughton. It features a famous scene in which Powell gives a sermon that focuses on his own tattoos—the word “LOVE” on the fingers of his right hand, and the word “HATE” on his left:
The scene was later memorably referenced in the 1989 Spike Lee film, Do the Right Thing, among many other works. A similar sermon is featured in the novel, which Powell gives to the aforementioned cellmate, named Ben: “These two hands are the soul of mortal man! Hate and Love, Ben—warring one against the other from the womb to the grave….Warring, boy! Warring together!”
No casting news or release date has yet been announced for the new film at this early stage, but its screenplay will be written by Matthew Orton, who recently wrote the 2018 historical-thriller film Operation Finale. It will be co-produced by Amy Pascal, who received an Oscar nomination for producing last year’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and Peter Gethers, who’s also a novelist and memoirist; he wrote a trilogy of nonfiction works about his cat, Norton, starting with 1991’s The Cat Who Went to Paris. His most recent book is 2017’s My Mother’s Kitchen: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and the Meaning of Life.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.