AMC's The Killing started its first season as a buzzed-about, critically successfully new TV mystery, a spin on the detective genre in which we don't just follow the gumshoes trying to solve a murder, but the family of the victim as they recover, and other people in the town affected by the death. A lot of people held on to this initial promise of The Killing even as the season got twister and went for crazier narrative leaps… but by the end of its run June, a lot of those people had given it up. People who loved The Killing the most were accusing showrunner Veena Sud of having no idea where the show was headed, and though some are committed to sticking through a season 2, plenty of others think it's no longer worth it.
With Season 2 coming in April, Sud and her show may be ready to redeem itself, which might be the possible explanation for some baffling news over at Variety. They're reporting that Sud is planning to write a remake of Suspicion, Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 film starrig Joan Fontaine and Cary Grant. That starpower alone might dissuade someone from tackling the material-- Fontaine won an Oscar for the role, after all-- but Suspicion isn't quite ranked among Hitchcock classics like Vertigo and North By Northwest, and Sud is likely to be presenting her film to a wide range of moviegoers who have never seen it. The "adaptation"-- technically she's adapting the book Before the Fact it was based on-- is set up at Paramount, and there doesn't seem to be a director in mind just yet.
I don't even watch The Killing, but I've become familiar enough with how frustrated its fans are that I'm skeptical about this too. But is an excellent second season about to come about wipe away all those doubts? That could explain how Sud got the gig… or it could just be more evidence of someone who's name is out there in the ether getting a job whether she deserves it or not.
