One Of The Greatest Thrillers Of All Time Gets A Netflix Remake With The Wages Of Fear Trailer
In 1950, French author Georges Arnaud wrote a novel with the translated title of "The Wages of Fear," and three years later, director Henri-Georges Clouzot adapted it into one of the most tense films ever made. When a gargantuan fire breaks out at an isolated oil derrick in the middle of nowhere, the only way to stop the problem is to literally blow up the entire site. The problem is, it will take a hell of a lot of nitroglycerin to do that. Naturally, that compound is highly combustible and incredibly sensitive. If you jostle it around, it explodes. It turns out the only way to transport it is to pack it into the back of trucks, physically drive it across incredibly rough terrain, and hope for the best. The drivers, broke and trapped in a dead-end town with no prospects, are offered astronomical sums of money to make the trek, and their perilous journey begins.
"The Exorcist" director William Friedkin directed a remake called "Sorcerer" in 1977, and against all odds, managed to improve on the original. His version contains absolutely elite filmmaking from a director at the top of his game, and I'm comfortable calling it one of the most suspenseful films ever made.
Now, "Ganglands" director Julien Leclercq has taken the baton for yet another remake, once again called "The Wages of Fear."
Will this version lose what made the first two so great?
When /Film's Chris Evangelista and I spoke about these films on a recent episode of the /Film Daily podcast, we speculated that if anyone ever decided to remake "The Wages of Fear" again today, it might rely more on CGI and lose the tactility and tangibility that made the first two films so great. You can listen to that conversation below:
To be fair, this teaser trailer doesn't seem to feature excessive amounts of CGI. What it does feature, unfortunately, is a significant amount of gunplay — footage of what seems like a team of professionals locking and loading, launching grenades at helicopters, and getting into gunfights. This iteration of the story forces the characters to transport the trucks through "hostile zones controlled by armed rebels," according to the official synopsis, so perhaps this is a way to potentially raise the stakes for modern audiences. But another crucial reason the first two movies work so well is because of the simplicity of the mission: Get this material from point A to point B.
It's obviously too early to tell for sure, but I wonder if introducing a bunch of characters with guns as an obstacle might make this version lose some of the relatability of the previous ones, which were as much about the mental fortitude of the characters coming up with creative ways to navigate around downed trees and sketchy rope bridges.
We'll find out when "The Wages of Fear" hits Netflix on March 29, 2024.