History always repeats itself! Francis Ford Coppola’s film “The Conversation“, produced about half a century ago, may be redone as a new television series.

AMC cable television network is actually looking to develop series based on well known “The Conversation“. Tony Krantz was the producer of the old version and he was been trying to make it into a TV vehicle for over a decade. The project started taking flight when AMC and Tony agreed on a cooperation to develop this project jointly. Tony chose Christopher McQuarrie, the screenwriter of “Usual Suspects”, and Erik Jendersen (”Band of Brothers”) to write the new version.

The original movie features Hackman, a private surveillance expert in San Francisco. He is hired to spy on a couple, by recording their conversations. Later, by gathering all the pieces of records, he finds out that the couple is threatened by mortal danger. It becomes an obsession for him.

Variety reports Krantz’ words :

It is already two years that the producer has been working in the modernized version, and it is to be set in the 1970’s, trough the filter of the present.

As we read in Variety, “The Conversation” series will contain close-ended stories, as Harry Caul goes about his job as an eavesdropper, coupled with a larger, ongoing storyline about who’s monitoring him as he hears conversations he shouldn’t be privy to. Show will also treat issues of media manipulation, which is very topical nowadays.

For AMC, this project fits squarely with its strategy of developing a feature-like series and AMC has hopes the project will succeed. Indeed, Coppola’s “The Conversation” is a great movie and it earned three Oscar nominations in 1975, including a nomination for best picture. However, why would you try to rework a great film that is already great, and try to make it into something else. Why not create something completely new? Maybe lack of creative thinking is to blame?

Watch the trailer of Ford Coppola’s original “The Conversation” and see how great the movie is.

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