Three Identical Strangers director Tim Wardle has revealed that a Hollywood remake of his startling documentary is currently in development, and he expects every A-list actor to be interested in the leading part. Or, should I say, parts.
That’s because the documentary revolves around the heartwarming reunion of three triplets, who only found out about each other by accident when they were in their early 20s.
However, after its heart-warming opening, “Three Identical Strangers” then reveals the disgusting reason why the triplets were separated, and the film quickly becomes more and more beguiling.
That’s exactly why “Three Identical Strangers” has astonished and astounded everyone who has seen it ever since it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
One of the first people to champion “Three Identical Strangers” was Darren Aronofsky, the director of “Mother!,” “The Wrestler” and “Requiem For A Dream,” who Tweeted about it after its first screening at Sundance.
During our interview last month, Wardle admitted that this was the first moment when the “surreal” interest in the documentary started to swirl.
“When we went to Sundance we were like, maybe a few people will see it. Darren Aronofsky came to the first screening and he tweeted about it and from then on it has basically been insanity.”
“Lots of people have shown lots of interest in the drama remake, which looks like it is going to happen.”
Wardle, who admitted that he doesn’t expect to “be heavily involved” in the remake, and will instead probably just be “an executive,” believes that plenty of Hollywood A-listers will covet the leading roles of Eddy, Bobby and David, because it offers them the rare chance to play triplets.
“After Sundance there were a lot of big Hollywood players chasing it. Partly, obviously it is this great story, but it is this easy sell for an actor. It is like, ‘Do you want to play 3 people? People have played twins before but no-one has played triplets.’ So I guess it appeals to actor egos.”
Wardle also insisted “there’s loads of lovely detail and scenes that we didn’t include that would play well in a drama,” before then specifically recalling one such sequence that had to ultimately be cut from “Three Identical Strangers.”
WARNING: There are some SPOILERS ahead for “Three Identical Strangers,” so please proceed cautiously if you haven’t yet seen the documentary.
“There’s a really amazing scene that they talk about where Eddy is in psychiatric hospital and really in a bad way and his wife goes in to see him with Bobby,” recalled Wardle.
“She says she could really see that he was heavily medicated and not in a good way, and she says he just looked at Bobby and said, ‘I need to get out of here, Bob. Switch with me, they’ll never know’.”
“It is like tragic but shows that there is a sense of humor there. She thought they were actually going to do it, so was like, ‘No, no, he needs to be in there.’ There were a lot of moments like that.”
“Three Identical Strangers” is in cinemas now.