A Perfect Murder
Written by Patrick Smith Kelly
Directed by Andrew Davis
USA, 1998
In a makeshift loft apartment in one of Manhattan’s forgotten districts, two lovers, Emily and David (Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen) embrace passionately under the bed sheets amidst a collection of amateur paintings. Emily is a successful aid to the United States ambassador at the United Nations, while David is a struggling artist hoping to catch a break in the New York art scene. The glitch in their happiness is that Emily is married to another man, Steven Taylor (Michael Douglas), an investor. Steven, perceptive and driven by the suspicion that his wife may be cheating on him, quickly collects all the information necessary to confirm his suspicions and some dirty secrets about David’s past. Rather than threaten David with murderous rage, Steven makes the artist an offer: murder Emily and earn $500,000 in the process.
Written by Patrick Smith Kelly
Directed by Andrew Davis
USA, 1998
In a makeshift loft apartment in one of Manhattan’s forgotten districts, two lovers, Emily and David (Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen) embrace passionately under the bed sheets amidst a collection of amateur paintings. Emily is a successful aid to the United States ambassador at the United Nations, while David is a struggling artist hoping to catch a break in the New York art scene. The glitch in their happiness is that Emily is married to another man, Steven Taylor (Michael Douglas), an investor. Steven, perceptive and driven by the suspicion that his wife may be cheating on him, quickly collects all the information necessary to confirm his suspicions and some dirty secrets about David’s past. Rather than threaten David with murderous rage, Steven makes the artist an offer: murder Emily and earn $500,000 in the process.
- 2/15/2014
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Patrick Smith Kelly has been brought aboard to adapt Benighted, a supernatural thriller novel by Kit Whitfield. Graham King is producing along with Andrew Adamson for Warner Bros. through King's new production shingle, GK Films.
Benighted is set in an alternate reality in which 90% of the population are werewolves and the minority human population is responsible for keeping the peace during the full moon. The book follows the story of Lola, a member of the police force investigating a series of suspicious, unsolved murders.
King acquired the book in 2006. Adamson is eyeing the project as a possible directorial vehicle.
Kevin McCormick is overseeing for Warners. Rick Schwartz is executive producing.
Kelly's credits include the Michael Douglas thrillers A Perfect Murder and Don't Say a Word. He is working on "Ink" for Universal and Imagine.
Kelly is repped by CAA.
Benighted is set in an alternate reality in which 90% of the population are werewolves and the minority human population is responsible for keeping the peace during the full moon. The book follows the story of Lola, a member of the police force investigating a series of suspicious, unsolved murders.
King acquired the book in 2006. Adamson is eyeing the project as a possible directorial vehicle.
Kevin McCormick is overseeing for Warners. Rick Schwartz is executive producing.
Kelly's credits include the Michael Douglas thrillers A Perfect Murder and Don't Say a Word. He is working on "Ink" for Universal and Imagine.
Kelly is repped by CAA.
- 10/16/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
David Boreanaz is looking to return to series television. The former star of the WB Network's Angel is set to star in a drama project for ABC based on the life of undercover hit man Jack Ballantine. The show, from Warner Bros. Television and studio-based Tannenbaum Co., has received a script commitment from the network. Feature writer Patrick Smith Kelly (Don't Say a Word) is penning the script, which would star Boreanaz as an undercover cop in the world of murder for hire. Kelly is also executive producing with Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum. Boreanaz, who received three Saturn Awards for playing the title role on Angel, recently completed the indie films Mr. Fix It and The Hard Easy. He is filming another indie, These Girls, written and directed by John Hazlett. Boreanaz is repped by CAA and manager Tom Parziale. Kelly is repped by CAA.
- 11/1/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
David Boreanaz is looking to return to series television. The former star of the WB Network's Angel is set to star in a drama project for ABC based on the life of undercover hit man Jack Ballantine. The show, from Warner Bros. Television and studio-based Tannenbaum Co., has received a script commitment from the network. Feature writer Patrick Smith Kelly (Don't Say a Word) is penning the script, which would star Boreanaz as an undercover cop in the world of murder for hire. Kelly is also executive producing with Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum. Boreanaz, who received three Saturn Awards for playing the title role on Angel, recently completed the indie films Mr. Fix It and The Hard Easy. He is filming another indie, These Girls, written and directed by John Hazlett. Boreanaz is repped by CAA and manager Tom Parziale. Kelly is repped by CAA.
- 11/1/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Before he assumes the role of James Bond again for MGM in 2005, Variety reports that Pierce Brosnan is slated to make the action thriller Mexicali with the studio. With production set to start sometime in 2004, the film will be editor Pietro Scalia's first foray into feature film directing, from a script by Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring; Patrick Kelly is expected to do a rewrite. In the film, Brosnan will play a businessman who, along with his wife, witnesses a murder while sailing off the coast of Baja. When his wife disappears, he attempts to rescue her and get back across the border before he's caught by the killers.
- 10/10/2003
- IMDbPro News
Filling the shoes of those who came before you is never easy, especially when the footwear belonged to Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly and Ray Milland.
Yet "A Perfect Murder" -- based loosely on Hitch's "Dial M for Murder", which was adapted from Frederick Knott's stage play of the same name -- succeeds admirably.
A smart, classy, near-perfect suspense thriller boasting crackling performances from Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow, it's director Andrew Davis' best work since "The Fugitive".
This is a yarn in which the perpetrator's identity is shared with the audience from the start, but the tautly executed cat-and-mouse maneuvers nevertheless keep it involving.
Filling an underserved niche, "A Perfect Murder" should yield Warner Bros. some of its best boxoffice numbers of the year.
Purists may find it sacrilege to say so, but Patrick Smith Kelly's clever screenplay, rather than simply updating the action from 1950s London to '90s Manhattan, actually improves on the Knott/Hitchcock original by creating a more treacherous dynamic between the two male points of the intriguing love-hate triangle.
When wealthy industrialist Steven Taylor (Douglas in full "Wall Street" Gordon Gekko mode) realizes that his prized possession -- coming-from-big-money, U.N. multilingual-translator wife Emily -- is having a torrid affair with struggling artist David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen), Taylor plots to critically hurt the one he loves.
Revealing his discovery to Shaw after digging up a considerable criminal portfolio on the career usurper of wealthy women, Taylor blackmails him into killing Emily.
Needless to say, despite elaborate preparations, the execution goes horribly awry as Emily manages to ward off her masked attacker by stabbing him -- no, not in the back with a pair of scissors (that may have worked in the tasteful '50s), but with a carefully aimed meat thermometer to the jugular.
To make matters worse for Taylor, the unintended murder victim doesn't turn out to be whom we expected. As Taylor frantically attempts to cover his tracks, Emily's suspicions are understandably heightened, as are those of Detective Mohamed Karaman (David Suchet), with whom Emily converses in his native Arabic.
Even Hitchcock would have approved of the casting. Douglas revels in playing the seamy, dark side that the late, great master of suspense used to enjoy eliciting from Hollywood good guys Cary Grant and James Stewart.
And while she's not exactly Grace Kelly (who is?), Paltrow brings an intelligent wiliness to her not-so-pitiful victim. Good also are Mortensen as an out-of-his-league counter-blackmailer and Suchet as the detective who answers to a much higher authority when making judgment calls.
Technical contributions are nothing short of superb.
A PERFECT MURDER
Warner Bros.
A Kopelson Entertainment production
An Andrew Davis film
Director: Andrew Davis
Producers: Arnold Kopelson
and Anne Kopelson, Christopher Mankiewicz, Peter Macgregor-Scott
Screenwriter: Patrick Smith Kelly
Based on the play "Dial M for Murder" by:
Frederick Knott
Executive producer: Stephen Brown
Director of photography: Dariusz Wolski
Production designer: Philip Rosenberg
Editors: Dennis Virkler, Dov Hoenig
Costume designer: Ellen Mirojnick
Music: James Newton Howard
Color/stereo
Cast:
Steven Taylor: Michael Douglas
Emily Bradford Taylor: Gwyneth Paltrow
David Shaw: Viggo Mortensen
Detective Mohamed Karaman: David Suchet
Raquel Martinez: Sarita Choudhury
Sandra Bradford: Constance Towers
Running time -- 107 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Yet "A Perfect Murder" -- based loosely on Hitch's "Dial M for Murder", which was adapted from Frederick Knott's stage play of the same name -- succeeds admirably.
A smart, classy, near-perfect suspense thriller boasting crackling performances from Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow, it's director Andrew Davis' best work since "The Fugitive".
This is a yarn in which the perpetrator's identity is shared with the audience from the start, but the tautly executed cat-and-mouse maneuvers nevertheless keep it involving.
Filling an underserved niche, "A Perfect Murder" should yield Warner Bros. some of its best boxoffice numbers of the year.
Purists may find it sacrilege to say so, but Patrick Smith Kelly's clever screenplay, rather than simply updating the action from 1950s London to '90s Manhattan, actually improves on the Knott/Hitchcock original by creating a more treacherous dynamic between the two male points of the intriguing love-hate triangle.
When wealthy industrialist Steven Taylor (Douglas in full "Wall Street" Gordon Gekko mode) realizes that his prized possession -- coming-from-big-money, U.N. multilingual-translator wife Emily -- is having a torrid affair with struggling artist David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen), Taylor plots to critically hurt the one he loves.
Revealing his discovery to Shaw after digging up a considerable criminal portfolio on the career usurper of wealthy women, Taylor blackmails him into killing Emily.
Needless to say, despite elaborate preparations, the execution goes horribly awry as Emily manages to ward off her masked attacker by stabbing him -- no, not in the back with a pair of scissors (that may have worked in the tasteful '50s), but with a carefully aimed meat thermometer to the jugular.
To make matters worse for Taylor, the unintended murder victim doesn't turn out to be whom we expected. As Taylor frantically attempts to cover his tracks, Emily's suspicions are understandably heightened, as are those of Detective Mohamed Karaman (David Suchet), with whom Emily converses in his native Arabic.
Even Hitchcock would have approved of the casting. Douglas revels in playing the seamy, dark side that the late, great master of suspense used to enjoy eliciting from Hollywood good guys Cary Grant and James Stewart.
And while she's not exactly Grace Kelly (who is?), Paltrow brings an intelligent wiliness to her not-so-pitiful victim. Good also are Mortensen as an out-of-his-league counter-blackmailer and Suchet as the detective who answers to a much higher authority when making judgment calls.
Technical contributions are nothing short of superb.
A PERFECT MURDER
Warner Bros.
A Kopelson Entertainment production
An Andrew Davis film
Director: Andrew Davis
Producers: Arnold Kopelson
and Anne Kopelson, Christopher Mankiewicz, Peter Macgregor-Scott
Screenwriter: Patrick Smith Kelly
Based on the play "Dial M for Murder" by:
Frederick Knott
Executive producer: Stephen Brown
Director of photography: Dariusz Wolski
Production designer: Philip Rosenberg
Editors: Dennis Virkler, Dov Hoenig
Costume designer: Ellen Mirojnick
Music: James Newton Howard
Color/stereo
Cast:
Steven Taylor: Michael Douglas
Emily Bradford Taylor: Gwyneth Paltrow
David Shaw: Viggo Mortensen
Detective Mohamed Karaman: David Suchet
Raquel Martinez: Sarita Choudhury
Sandra Bradford: Constance Towers
Running time -- 107 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
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