Did you like playing queen? Netflix doesn’t want any more series from the creator with Anna Taylor-Joy

Although not as well known as some authors, writer and director Scott Frank is one of the most respected screenwriters in Hollywood. You only have to read the very beautiful portrait published on the pages He is a YorkerWhere filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh or Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, Andor) praise him for realizing this.

Like Tony Gilroy, Scott Frank is one of Hollywood’s most prolific screenwriters, having put his talents to work in films like Out of Reach, Minority Report, Logan… but also in occasional rewrites and general no-shows. Like Saving Private Ryan or, in a completely different genre, Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead.

Despite this, he had to wait several years before he came out of the shadows and was recognized. All that changed with the success of two series: Godless, a western starring Jack O’Connell and Michelle Dockery and, of course, Lady’s Gambit with Anna Taylor-Joy.

With such a calling card, it is rather disturbing to learn that after these great successes, Netflix has turned down three new projects. One of them was even a project that was supposed to be separated from the union with Anya Taylor-Joy. Here’s what the New Yorker reveals:

“It was an adaptation of one of them laugh at night or Slow room, a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Frank co-wrote the screenplay with novelist and screenwriter Megan Abbott. The material is delicate; The novel, often called a precursor to Lolita, tells the story of a middle-aged art critic who falls in love with a seventeen-year-old girl. Frank wanted to cast her in film noir, and Abbott, who was an academic before turning to popular writing, is an authority on women in film noir.

“We talked about femme fatale as a character that’s not highlighted,” Abbott said. But great noir novels always play with that. Scott wanted to highlight a woman’s point of view.’ Anya Taylor-Joy is expected to play the role of the femme fatale if the film is made.“

The “Lolita” aspect was probably too daring for Netflix. The other two projects are unknown, but this may show that Netflix is ​​not as enthusiastic as it once was, when it seemed that they were handing out projects to writers like candy.

Scott Frank’s next project is Monsieur Spade, starring Clive Owen, which will air on AMC in January and Canal+ later this year. We can also wonder if this is one of the projects that Netflix has put aside.

There’s still a glimmer of hope: Netflix has greenlit the (same!) project it’s producing next, Department Q , a series based on the detective novels of Danish author Juss Adler-Olsen. I have seen several adaptations with The Investigations of Department V movies.