As reopening plans for movie theaters are continually pushed back and altered due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the fate of numerous upcoming film releases remains unclear. While studios are delaying blockbusters like Tenet and Mulan, other films have largely bypassed the theatrical window for a streaming release. The Woman In The Window may be the latest film to make that leap, as Deadline reports that Netflix is in talks to acquire the Joe Wright thriller from Fox 2000 and turn it into something of a release event. The upcoming thriller stars Amy Adams as Anna, an agoraphobic child psychologist whose illness has rendered her unable to leave her home and resulted in a separation from her husband and child. Stuck inside, Anna busies herself by spying on the new neighbors, whose seemingly idyllic family life resembles the one she wants—until she witnesses a horrible act of violence in the home. OR DOES SHE. The film also stars Gary Oldman, Brian Tyree Henry, and Julianne Moore.
The Woman In The Window is based on the novel by A.J. Finn, a pseudonym for Dan Mallory—the subject of a 2019 New Yorker piece that profiled the author’s tendency to distort and fabricate details of his own life. As Deadline notes, this has nothing to do with the film’s potential shift from Fox 2000/Disney to Netflix, but it’s a tasty read nonetheless. The Woman In The Window drew another round of eyebrow raises when screenwriter and co-star Tracy Letts told The Playlist that working on the film “kind of sucked,” and he felt overwhelmed by notes from the producers and director Joe Wright. Although Letts says his final draft was well-received by the powers-that-be, test screenings led to “rewrites and reshoots” with which he was not involved. A glowing endorsement, for sure.