The biggest and best streaming services in the world tend to have a sort of hivemind approach to content decisions, even if they don't actually know it at the time. Just as Netflix prepares to give people a remade version of a cult favourite movie (Man on Fire), changing it to a series and recasting the iconic Denzel Washington, Apple TV is planning a very similar move with a different movie.
It's remade Cape Fear, the Scorcese movie from 1991 based on a novel from decades earlier, and given one lucky fellow the job of replacing none other than Robert De Niro in the main role. This time around, Max will be played by Javier Bardem, in what's already looking like some inspired casting in the first teaser trailer, embedded below.
Max, Bardem's character, has just managed to get out of prison (exactly how that's happened is probably a major plot point), and he's out for revenge. On whom? Why, the defence lawyers who failed to get him out of the sentence in the first place – because they may or may not have declined to use evidence that could have saved him.
It's a classic setup that sees Max stalking and terrorising this pair of successful professionals, letting them slowly figure out who he is and what he knows about their pasts. To round out the main cast, they're played by the always excellent Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson.
So, the casting seems absolutely on point, but what I'm most impressed by at this point is the editing of this trailer. It's a screamer, to be honest, full of unsettling cuts and contrasts, and with a soundtrack that would put you on edge even if you knew nothing else about the show at all.
It has me hoping that this could be a real hit for Apple TV, which can also boast the movie's director, Martin Scorsese and another legend, Steven Spielberg, as executive producers, which is quite the power pair. Scorsese's involvement also indicates he's in a real lovey-dovey phase with Apple, for whom he's now filmed a couple of cameos in recent years.
Cape Fear will start on 5 June, so we'll doubtless learn more about it in the next couple of months.
