“I don’t trust him. He’s a liar. It’s his profession,” Dakota Fanning’s Marge Sherwood warns in the new trailer for Netflix’s Ripley, a limited series starring Andrew Scott as the globe-trotting con artist Tom Ripley.
Written and directed by Oscar winner Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, The Irishman), the latest adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s classic novel sees Ripley, accountant by day, morph into a murderous scammer. Emma’s Johnny Flynn is Dickie Greenleaf—the vagabond heir to a wealthy Manhattan fortune with whom Ripley becomes enamored—and Fanning is his girlfriend, Marge, the first person to become suspicious of Ripley’s persistent presence in their lives.
As she puts it plainly in the trailer: “He came to Italy, moved into Dickie’s house—he just wouldn’t go away. Tom is one of those people who takes advantage of people. He’s taking advantage of Dickie.” In a preview aptly set to “The Great Pretender,” Ripley is shown worming his way into Dickie’s affluent lifestyle, even mimicking the man whose life he’d like to lead.
“You get taken into this character in such a profound way. The process of being Tom Ripley, the audience gets to be a part of all of it, every little step,” Fanning told Vanity Fair about the upcoming project, which is presented entirely in black and white. “Nothing is brushed over or assumed. We get to see exactly how this character does what he does, and that’s super fascinating.”
The character study approach to this narrative, which previously inspired the 1999 film starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law, as well as Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, is what sets it apart. “I think it’s a very new, very exciting version of it,” Scott told VF. “It’s incredibly gripping, and I hope we understand him in a new way.” The bingeable series structure also pays homage to the true-crime aspect of Highsmith’s story. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen it in this episodic form, and I think it really lends itself to the [notion] of, Okay, I’ve got to watch more of this story unfold,” the actor continues. “I hope I don’t let people down.”
All eight episodes of Ripley stream on April 4.
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