DreamWorks’ starry adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ best-selling thriller The Girl on the Train is picking up speed. Barely a week has passed since we brought you the news that Justin Theroux had boarded the studio’s adaptation, but The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Friends and Neighbors alum Lisa Kudrow has joined the ensemble cast.
Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Leto, Justin Theroux, Haley Bennett, Edgar Ramirez and Allison Janney, Kudrow will play the part of Monica (!), a co-worker to Theroux’s ex-husband character Tom. It’s the latter star who will play an instrumental figure for Emily Blunt’s titular character, who becomes inadvertently embroiled in a suspenseful murder mystery during her daily commute to work.
Tate Taylor (The Help) is behind the lens for this one, which will pick up with Blunt’s lead dreaming up an idyllic life for a happily-married couple she spots on the journey to and fro work. But all is not what it seems. Upon laying eyes on something unspeakable, Blunt’s protagonist finds herself drawn into the crime case that quickly unravels around the aforementioned couple – or Jess and Jason, as Blunt’s protagonist refers to them – and that’s when The Girl on the Train veers off the tracks into a dark, pulse-pounding thriller.
Production is primed to kick-off on Taylor’s star-studded rendition of The Girl on the Train, and we expect it to pull into theaters at some point in late 2016. To whet your appetite, here’s a synopsis of Hawkins’ novel.
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?