Rachel Weisz And Sam Claflin Star In Remake Of 'My Cousin Rachel'

You might think that Olivia de Havilland and Richard Burton are untouchable, but that’s only if you’ve never been around Hollywood. While Daphne Du Maurier‘s novel "My Cousin Rachel" was already made into an Oscar-nominated noir in 1952, a new version is being prepped for the modern age.

Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin will team up for the new adaptation. Roger Michell ("Hyde Park On Hudson," "Le Week-End") will direct this updated version and also write the script, which tells the tale of an orphan who seeks revenge on the woman he believes murdered his cousin and caretaker. Here’s the book synopsis:

Philip Ashley’s older cousin Ambrose, who raised the orphaned Philip as his own son, has died in Rome. Philip, the heir to Ambrose’s beautiful English estate, is crushed that the man he loved died far from home. He is also suspicious. While in Italy, Ambrose fell in love with Rachel, a beautiful English and Italian woman. But the final, brief letters Ambrose wrote hint that his love had turned to paranoia and fear.

Now Rachel has arrived at Philip’s newly inherited estate. Could this exquisite woman, who seems to genuinely share Philip’s grief at Ambrose’s death, really be as cruel as Philip imagined? Or is she the kind, passionate woman with whom Ambrose fell in love? Philip struggles to answer this question, knowing Ambrose’s estate, and his own future, will be destroyed if his answer is wrong.

This is potent source material, so fingers crossed this iteration has some juice. To see what they’re up against, here’s Henry Koster‘s 1952 version in full. [THR/Variety]