Brett Ratner to direct THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL

By: Karl Schneider
Date: Thursday, August 10, 2006
Source: Variety

Brett Ratner has signed on to direct a contemporized remake of 1978 thriller THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL for New Line. Richard Potter and Matthew Stravitz will write the script.

Based on the Ira Levin novel, the original film fit the mode of 1970s paranoid thrillers, with Laurence Olivier uncovering a diabolical plot by Nazis in South America to revive the Third Reich through the use of cloning. Gregory Peck played Dr. Josef Mengele, the plot's mastermind.

The writers pitched a take that sticks close to Levin's novel but sets the action in the present day.

THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL will be produced by Rob Green of Granada, along with Rat Entertainment partners Ratner and Jay Stern.

The hope is Ratner will make Boys his follow-up to Rush Hour 3, which New Line puts into production in late September for an August 10, 2007, release.