It’s quite possible that you’ve never
seen the Shirley MacLaine/Michale Caine heist film Gambit,
and that is too bad. I only just discovered this film, which is a truly
amazing piece of work and contains possibly the only twist opening I’ve ever seen. That makes the
movie tough to talk about and even harder to explain why it’s so
mind-bendingly great, but suffice it to say that Michael Caine is an art
thief who hires dancing girl MacLaine to help steal a priceless
artifact from a Middle Eastern billionaire and…. well, it’s just
totally awesome.
The Coen Bros have written a script of
a remake of the film, and now it looks like Doug Liman could be
directing it. Liman is an interesting choice, and I think he could bring
something very fun to the opening twist. The original is a highly
structured movie, and I imagine the Coens are keeping that intact, and
it needs a precise director – something Liman is known to be, often to
the extreme.
Liman has other stuff happening – he’s
heading to Cannes with Fair Game, his Valerie Plame movie, and then
he may do a new Three Musketeers – but I’d be really interested in
seeing him tackle this one first.