A few years back a Spanish language low budget science fiction film came and went without ever truly enjoying the crossover into mainstream success which it deserved…

That film was TIMECRIMES, a fiendish time travel puzzle that played out like Hitchcock crossed with BACK TO THE FUTURE. It was scary, suspenseful, blackly funny and well directed by Nacho Vigalondo who has since gone on to direct the forthcoming EXTRATERRESTRIAL. Unsurprisingly a remake was mooted and was connected to David Cronenberg who went on to categorically deny he had anything to do with the film.

In April 2008, it was announced that celebrated screenwriter Steven Zaillian and Agnes Metre would be producing the remake with Timothy Sexton hired to pen the film. Then it all went quiet. Now with his script for the American version of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO getting pretty decent reviews, Steven Zaillian has said that he will be directing TIMECRIMES himself. He recently had this to say about the project:

“We have to cast it but it’s a tricky one. I’d want to make it really low budget. I think part of its appeal is that it’s kind of a low budget thriller, but it’s hard to get that made without a major actor. I’d like to make it for $10m so the trick is to find the right actor who doesn’t suddenly push the budget up into $20m or $30m. It’s one of the rare opportunities where you have four characters, two locations, why do you need to spend that much money? This is a story that you wouldn’t want to tell any differently, and it happens to be an economical way to go.”

TIMECRIMES is a film that feels like it was far lower a budget than 10 million dollars; it doesn’t even feel like it was made for 1 million dollars. It’s something that doesn’t really need huge special effects to do it right, just a writer with skill and a director with passion. It would be an ideal situation if they could get someone low key like Paul Giamatti to star in the film as an everyman type is what is needed rather than a Hollywood beefcake. More on this as it develops, in the meantime if you haven’t seen TIMECRIMES make sure you do, you won’t regret it.

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