Greta Gerwig once picked her favourite crime movie
Having made a seamless transition from the director of universally adored coming-of-age dramas to the architect of a certifiable blockbuster sensation, the next steps in Greta Gerwig’s career will be fascinating.
Her first post-Barbie excursion behind the camera certainly ticks that box anyway, with the filmmaker currently developing a reboot of the epic fantasy saga The Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix. Presumably, Warner Bros will also be hounding her for a sequel to the $1.4 billion-grossing cultural phenomenon, but given her personal tastes, Gerwig tackling the espionage genre would be a mouth-watering proposition.
Her scripts for mumblecore duo Hannah Takes the Stairs and Nights and Weekends, improvisational comedy Northern Comfort, monochromatic dramedy Frances Ha and the screwball-styled Mistress America don’t offer much indication that suspense would be a logical port of call – and the same can be said of Lady Bird and Little Women – but Gerwig’s favourite crime caper nonetheless offers a window into what it could look like.
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 classic The 39 Steps finds Richard Donat’s tourist Richard Hannay becoming embroiled in a conspiracy involving an international spy ring. When he meets Lucie Mannheim’s Annabella Smith – who soon ends up dead – he ends up on the run, evading the authorities after becoming the number one suspect in her murder. Not only that, but he has to stop the leaking of secrets that pose a risk to international security, all while unravelling a wide-ranging cover-up.
Hitchcockian to its very core, with the narrative hinging on a man on the run with a MacGuffin looming large over the proceedings, Gerwig called The 39 Steps “maybe one of the most perfect movies ever made” in conversation with IndieWire, praising the attention to detail on display in virtually every frame that almost obligates multiple viewings to pick up on its many subtleties and nuances.
A spy thriller with international implications might be unlike anything she’s ever directed before, but Gerwig did admit she’d be open to the prospect of taking on the biggest espionage brand in all of cinema. When pressed by Total Film on whether or not she’d be interested in becoming the first female director in James Bond history, the three-time Academy Award nominee quickly changed her tune from “Oh my God, no” to “you never know” before adding that she really likes producer Barbara Broccoli.
John Buchan’s novel The Thirty-Nine Steps has already been adapted three times since Hitchcock’s original in 1959, 1978, and 2008 – with Benedict Cumberbatch set to headline another version that’s currently in the works at Netflix with All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger attached – so technically the possibility couldn’t be ruled out that Gerwig would be interested in mounting her own spin one day given the regularity at which it’s been told and retold.
