New Line Plans Remake of The Last of Sheila

Back in 1973 a small film was released, directed by Herbert Ross from a screenplay Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim, which we didn't discover until probably a decade or so later. Its title: The Last of Sheila. It is, and remains to this day, a gem of a mystery film. It was even honored with an Edgar Award in 1974 for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.

The film stars James Coburn as Clinton Greene, a movie producer, who assembles, Agatha Christie-style, a group of guests — played by Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Mason, Ian McShane, Joan Hackett, and Raquel Welch — aboard his yacht for a week-long Mediterranean cruise. Once underway, he announces that their mini-vacation is actually a game in which they must discover everyone else's secret while protecting their own. And one of those secrets is the identity of who was driving the car that killed his wife in a hit-and-run accident years ago. It isn't long before Clinton is murdered, and the game turns into one in which the guests must determined which one of them is a killer.

Rarely has a film so captured our imagination and entertained us so completely. And though we are usually among the first to decry remakes or reimaginations of films or television series we hold in high esteem, call us hypocrites if you must, but we think this one is perfect for a contemporary update.

And that's just what New Line Cinema is planning. We'll be following this project, if it moves forward, closely. Here's more via The Hollywood Reporter.

The Last of Sheila is difficult to find new on DVD — we still have our original VHS version! — but it is available to rent or own from Amazon Instant Video.

We found a trailer for the film on YouTube, which we've embedded below.