Vietnamese horror movie to get American remake

HA NOI — Oscar-winning screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher will write the screenplay for the American remake of the Vietnamese horror flick, The Housemaid.

The movie, by the Vietnamese-American director Derek Nguyen, is set in 1953 during the First Indochinese War. The story follows an orphaned country girl who is hired as a housemaid at a haunted French rubber plantation. She unexpectedly falls in love with the plantation’s owner and awakens the vengeful ghost of his dead wife.

“The opportunity to reimagine this compelling story in the context of American history is incredibly exciting,” Fletcher told the entertainment news website, deadline.com. “Derek Nguyen’s cinematic fable, produced by Timothy Bui, is perfect for Reconstruction Era reinvention, especially today.”

Nguyen, who directed the Vietnamese version, said: “When writing the original script for The Housemaid, I became aware of the many parallels between the lives of Vietnamese-indentured servants during the French colonial period and African American slaves in the American South. It’s an honour to have a celebrated screenwriter such as Geoffrey Fletcher shed light on the horrors of brutal injustice in a new version that will not only entertain but provoke thought.”

Fletcher was the first black screenwriter to win an Oscar for his work. He has also written the script for the drama, Trial By Fire, based on an article published in The New Yorker by David Grann. The movie is directed by Ed Zwick and stars Laura Dern and Jack O’Connell.

The original Co Hau Gai (The Housemaid) was released in Viet Nam in September 2016. It won the Silver Lotus award in the Best Movie category of the 20th Viet Nam Film Festival in 2017. — VNS