‘The Getaway’ Remake in the Works at Netflix From ‘Adolescence’ Creator Philip Barantini

Netflix is going to remake one of the most entertaining action movies of the 1970s (via THR).

Hey, at least Philip Barantini, the director of the acclaimed mini-series “Adolescence,” has been tasked with making a new version of the 1972 Steve McQueen classic “The Getaway.” Still, it just feels wrong. Who can seriously replace the iconic cool of McQueen?

Peter Craig, who wrote “The Town” and “The Batman,” has penned the script. If I’m Barantini, I go for broke here and shoot the car chase scenes in one take, à la “Adolescence.” Inject something different into this remake.

“The Getaway” was actually already remade in 1994 in a film starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. It was met with negative reviews and bombed at the box office.

The original “The Getaway” starred Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw as a married pair drawn into a high-stakes bank robbery in Texas, carried out as part of a deal to secure the husband’s release from prison. When the plan is betrayed and turns deadly, the couple is left on the run, pursued across the Texas landscape by criminals and police forces.

The original screenplay was written by Walter Hill—who would later direct action classics like “The Warriors” and “48 Hrs.”—adapting the 1958 novel by Jim Thompson. The film was ultimately directed by Sam Peckinpah, and I doubt Barantini will ever have the hard edge Peckinpah had as a director.

In fact, Barantini, who began as an actor in the HBO series “Band of Brothers,” broke out with the acclaimed “Adolescence,” a drama he created which hit viewing records and became one of the most acclaimed pieces of television of the last decade.

What did Barantini sign up to direct after that? “Enola Holmes 3,” of course.