Guillermo Del Toro developing a remake of '40s carnival noir Nightmare Alley

By Sam Barsanti | December 12, 2017 | 7:54pm

Aux News Film

Guillermo Del Toro just dropped The Shape Of Water, one of his most critically acclaimed movies in years, but he seems like the sort of guy who enjoys having a huge stack of things to work on at all times. So, according to Variety, he has already lined up one of his many future projects: A remake of the 1947 carnival-set noir movie Nightmare Alley. He plans to direct the movie, and he’s working with Kim Morgan to co-write a script—though the Variety story points out that they haven’t started writing yet, so this probably won’t be Del Toro’s next project.

The original Nightmare Alley starred Tyrone Power as a con-man who works at a seedy carnival, and he eventually starts scheming with a woman who was running her own con that involved pretending to have psychic powers. Like most cinematic con-men, his various schemes eventually fall apart, and he ends up back at the carnival with some newfound awareness of the darkness that humans are capable of. For the record, The A.V. Club suggested Nightmare Alley had remake potential back in 2015, so we’re going to assume Del Toro was inspired by us.