Tell no one, but Affleck will remake “Tell No One”

I love a good mystery novel. In fact, I’m in the middle of one now, The Last Child, by John Hart. One of my big favorites of recent vintage not written by Michael Connelly was Harlam Coben’s Tell No One. I didn’t come upon the book until a couple of years after its original publication and when I finished it I wondered why no one had optioned it as a movie. Then I learned someone had, but that someone was a French outfit. There goes the neighborhood, I thought. How are the French going to do justice to a story set in the Northeastern United States?

Turns out they treated it fairly well. Guillaume Canet’s 2006 film was one of the best of the year. But now I hear there’s finally going to be an American version. Usually, I don’t like American remakes of foreign films although I did think Let Me In was excellent and I’m hearing good advance word on David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. But the notion of a Tell No One remake doesn’t fill me with dread because it’s going to be directed by Ben Affleck, who I think did a wonderful job with Gone Baby Gone (somewhat less so with The Town, but, still, it was OK). I think Affleck can bring just the right touch to Coben’s book, although I still have not received definitive word on whether he will be re-adapting the novel or re-imagining Canet’s film.