In a recent column you ...

• Apr 13, 2006 04:00 AM ET
• by Maitland McDonagh

Question: In a recent column you answered a question about the classic Michael Caine/Laurence Olivier movie Sleuth, and it reminded me that I heard some time ago that they were remaking it with Caine in the Olivier role and a younger actor in Caine's old part. Is this true?

Answer: There's been talk for the better part of five years that Stephen Frears was going to direct a remake of Sleuth, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter (based faithfully on Anthony Shaffer's original play) and Michael Caine in the role of the aging novelist who tricks his wife's much-younger lover, a celebrity hairdresser, into visiting him and then enmeshes him in a cruel cat-and-mouse game. Back in 1972 it was, of course, Caine who played the brash young lothario and Sir Laurence Olivier who played the cuckolded husband with more than a few nasty tricks up his sleeve. Jude Law — who put his own spin on the role that made Caine famous in the 2004 remake of Alfie (1966) — will reportedly play the younger man. It's been more than a year since Caine told Variety columnist Army Archerd that the new Sleuth would start shooting in 2005, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to happen. But it doesn't look to be dead in the water just yet.