Where to begin with this one? Well, as the recent “Arthur” remake for the same studio (Warner Bros.) sponsoring this dubious project made painfully clear, contemporary audiences simply don’t find excessive drinking anymore. It’s unclear whether Jerry Stahl’s version of Dashiell Hammett’s book — famously adapted for W.S. Van Dyke’s 1934 classic starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, who made six sequels through 1947 — is a period piece, but I’m not sure even that will make serial tippling truly palatable.
At least this one won’t star Russell Brand, but I’m not convinced that Nick Charles — a gin-loving detective who’s retired after marrying a socialite — is a good fit for Johnny Depp, who’s best at playing more fantastical characters. Depp was distinctly uncomfortable as John Dillinger in “Public Enemies,” a recent movie that was actually set in 1934 — and referenced “Manhattan Melodrama,” the other Van Dyke-directed Powell-Loy movie from that year that Dillinger was watching just before he was killed by FBI agents.
Perhaps an even bigger obstacle is that for “The Thin Man” to work would require Depp to have chemistry with his female co-star, something that has very rarely occured during the course of his career. Marion Cotillard in “Public Enemies” and Angelina Jolie in “The Tourist” are among the actress with whom he’s failed to light a spark. The notable exception is Helena Bonham Carter, with whom Depp worked in “Sweeney Todd” and “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” But I have doubts if she’s right for Nora.
Actually, I think Tim Burton would be a better fit for this project than Rob Marshall, who in my book hasn’t yet directed a truly good movie, including the deeply mediocre Oscar-winner “Chicago” (“Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Nine” were excruciating). Of course I haven’t yet seen Marshall’s production of “Pirates of the Carribean: Disney Is Really Greedy,” which bows on Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival.
If the “Thin Man” movie does actually happen, hopefully it will work out better than “Nick and Nora,” a legendary 1991 Broadway flop starring Barry Bostwick and Joanna Gleason with music by Charles Strouse. The book was by none other than Arthur Laurents, the recenly-deceased theater legend who thankfully helped put the kibosh on Warners’ planned remake of “Gypsy” with Barbara Streisand just before he passed on. That was our “dubious movie idea of the month” for March.
