If the name ‘Ripley’ sounds familiar to you, you're probably thinking of the 1999 film The Talented Mr Ripley that sees Matt Damon play con artist Tom Ripley alongside Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Yet, what you might not know is that the character Tom Ripley actually stems from a five-book series by late American novelist Patricia Highsmith, that were periodically released between 1955 and 1991.
Now, a new series based on the character is coming to Netflix — and it stars Andrew Scott.
Aptly called Ripley, the limited eight-episode series has been written, directed, and executive produced by Academy Award winner Steve Zaillian (The Irishman), and is set in the 1960s.
“Tom Ripley is a part of our consciousness,” Zaillian recently told Vanity Fair. “Almost 70 years after Highsmith created him, contemporary figures are still being compared to him. He won’t go away.”
Zaillian also noted that stretching the story out from a film into eight episodes “allowed me to be more faithful to the story, tone, and subtleties of Highsmith’s work.”
So, what will Ripley be about and who else will join Scott in the cast? Read on to find out everything we know about the series.
What will Ripley be about?
Ripley will closely follow Highsmiths' series and will be set in New York City in the early 1960s. Interestingly, the entire series is shot in black and white (noir, much?), and there should be similar elements to the 1999 Matt Damon film.
According to Netflix: “Scott’s Tom Ripley is a grifter scraping by in early ’60s New York. He’s hired by a wealthy industrialist to travel to Italy to try to convince the man’s dilettante son, Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), to return home. Accepting the job is Tom’s first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud, and murder.”
The much-awaited series drops this week.
Vanity Fair has also provided further insight into the plot, stating that Scott's Ripley character is enticed by Greenleaf's lifestyle, and enamoured by Greenleaf's girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning).
“He goes to extreme lengths to preserve his place next to Dickie, ones that eventually devolve into deceit, fraud, and murder,” it adds.
It sounds pretty similar to the 1999 film, but with eight episodes to fill instead of a 2hr 19min film, we can expect the series to go into a lot more detail.
Who is in the Ripley cast?
Scott stars as the titular conniving conman. The role was famously played by Matt Damon in the popular film adaptation — but as Scott told Vanity Fair, his version of the character is sure to be very different.
"You don’t play the opinions, the previous attitudes that people might have about Tom Ripley,” he said. “You have to throw all those out, try not to listen to them, and go, Okay, well, I have to have the courage to create our own version and my own understanding of the character.”
Johnny Flynn, of Emma and The Lovers fame stars as Dickie, the object of Ripley's obsession and, eventually, his first victim.
Dakota Fanning is also joining the cast as Marge, Dickie's glamorous girlfriend.
When does Ripley come out on Netflix?
Netflix has so far kept mum on the Ripley release date, only stating that the limited series will drop some time in 2024.
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