‘House of Cards’ Director James Foley Climbs Aboard ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ Homage (Exclusive)

LD Entertainment is producing the untitled movie, which is inspired by Adrian Lyne’s 1990 cult classic starring Tim Robbins

original“House of Cards” director James Foley is in negotiations to direct an homage to the 1990 cult classic “Jacob’s Ladder” for Mickey Liddell’s LD Entertainment, TheWrap has learned.

Adrian Lyne directed the original 1990 drama from a script by Bruce Joel Rubin. Tim Robbins starred as a haunted Vietnam vet who attempts to decipher his past as he suffers from increasingly bizarre hallucinations. It featured a twist ending that helped seal its fate as a cult classic.

The untitled paranoid thriller that Foley is developing is less a remake than a contemporary homage to the original “Jacob’s Ladder” that introduces new situations and characters, though it will pose similar existential questions regarding life, death, reality and perception.

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Liddell and LD Entertainment’s Jennifer Monroe are producing the project with Michael Gaeta and Alison Rosenzweig. Jeff Buhler (“The Midnight Meat Train”) wrote the script, which has changed since the initial draft penned by Jake Wade Wall (“When a Strange Calls”).

Gaeta and Rosenzweig collaborated on DreamWorks’ 2011 remake of “Fright Night” and are developing a remake of the 1987 thriller “Angel Heart.”

LD Entertainment’s upcoming films include an adaptation of “Therese Raquin” starring Elizabeth Olsen and Jessica Lange. The movie is now titled “In Secret” and will be released by Roadside Attractions.

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Foley is best known for directing the feature adaptation of David Mamet’s play “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which featured “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey in one of his earliest film roles. He also worked with Mark Wahlberg (“Fear”) and Sean Penn (“At Close Range”) before they were major movie stars.

While Foley has taken a break from directing features since the 2007 Halle Berry-Bruce Willis thriller “Perfect Stranger,” the Hollywood veteran has reclaimed his past glory directing episodes of Netflix’s “House of Cards” and the stylish NBC series “Hannibal.” At a time when studios are turning to cheap young directors with VFX backgrounds, Foley is an old-school pro who can navigate the inherently tricky tone of a movie inspired by “Jacob’s Ladder.”

Foley is represented by UTA and attorney Alan Wertheimer.

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