Sony has snapped up the rights to Jacques Audiard's acclaimed French prison drama, A Prophet , with an English-language remake in the pipeline.
Audiard's Oscar-nominated film tells the story of a petty criminal who finds himself unwillingly climbing the ranks of a prison-based crime syndicate in order to survive life on the inside.
Neil H. Moritz has been confirmed to be producing the new film, and has wasted little time in waxing lyrical about the original's rich potential for translation.
"This is an epic crime saga with compelling characters and original storytelling," said Moritz, in a official press release. "I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to make an English language version of the film and I am grateful to have the trust of Jacques Audiard and his producers."
Having produced the likes of I Am Legend and the Fast & Furious series, Moritz's previous work has been extremely action-centric, and hopefully he won't ditch the psychological tension of the original in favour of crash-bang-wallop mayhem.
Whether or not the film needs a remake at all is up for debate, but we'll be able to get a better idea of Sony's plans when a director is announced. Whoever gets the gig, Audiard's shoes will be hard to fill...
