Tell No One has had quite the journey. First, it was a bestselling novel by Harlan Coben. Then it was made into a film. Only a large majority of Americans didn’t see it because it was made in France. But now it looks like it’ll be a Hollywood film after all.
According to Deadline, Warner Bros and Universal Pictures have optioned rights to Coben’s thriller with Ben Affleck attached to direct, and the script will be written by Chris Terrio. This will be their second consecutive collaboration, as Terrio scripted Argo, which Affleck is preparing now. And it’s already had its first casting announcement.
Ben Affleck will direct for Warner Bros. and Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will be the producers.
Originally set to be developed by Sony Pictures back in 2002, the project never got off the ground so Sony released the rights. French filmmaker Guillaume Canet got involved and set it up at Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp to make it one of the best reviewed theatrical releases of 2006.
The plot involves a pediatrician who is out one night frolicking by a lake with his wife when she suddenly vanishes and he is severely beaten when he tries to find her. When she turns up murdered, he is the prime suspect. That’s until she’s declared a victim of a caught serial killer. Years later, bodies turn up in the same spot and the nightmare is repeated, the pediatrician again under suspicion. Right around that time, he’s given evidence that his wife wasn’t dead at all.
What it means: Ben Affleck is already 2-2 when it comes to adapting crime thrillers. He’ll likely return to his stomping ground of Boston and shoot it there. If it does prove a success, hopefully it means that Coben’s bestelling Myron Bolitar series about a former hoops star-turned-sports agent (who also dabbled as an investigator for the FBI) who loves him some Yoo-Hoo! will one day make it to the big screen.