Director Tate Taylor (The Help) has secured his three leading ladies for the upcoming adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ best-seller The Girl On The Train, after Deadline broke the news that The Equalizer‘s Haley Bennett has joined the project to play the titular part.
Bennett joins Emily Blunt and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation‘s Rebecca Ferguson for the much-touted novel-to-screen translation, which has since drawn comparisons to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and its thriller tenets. Working from a screenplay produced by Erin Cressida Wilson, Taylor’s film centers around Bennett’s Rachel, an everyday commuter who tries to brighten up her trips to and from work by dreaming up a scenario for a seemingly idyllic suburban home.
Jess and Jason, as she refers to them, are a perfectly happy married couple living a life that she so longs for, but one morning when her train passes by their house she witnesses something bizarre – deadly, even. It’s unclear what Rachel lays eyes on, but it’s evidently unsettling, as she hurries to the police station to bring her story forward, becoming embroiled in the mystery in the process.
It’s a multi-faceted role for Bennett, considering that her Rachel is teetering on the edge of alcoholism when she stumbles across this most unnerving event. Filming on The Girl on the Train will take place in London, though there’s no word on a release date as of yet. For now, check out the plot summary below:
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?