Netflix Set to Buy Joe Wright’s Long-Delayed ‘Woman in the Window’ from Disney-Fox
“The Woman in the Window” will finally see the light of day, as Netflix is reportedly in negotiations to acquire the Fox 2000 film that’s been sitting on the shelf since fall of 2019. Directed by Joe Wright, the “Rear Window”-esque thriller stars Amy Adams as an agoraphobic, alcoholic child psychologist who may or may not have seen an act of terrifying violence in her neighbor’s apartment. Deadline first reported the acquisition news. There’s no word yet on when the film will premiere, but a source confirmed to IndieWire that the acquisition is underway. IndieWire has also reached out to Netflix for comment.
While rumors have swirled of a streaming debut, the seamy adult thriller wouldn’t be appropriate for Disney+, even though Disney owns Fox 2000. Disney also owns Hulu, which was thought to be the eventual home for the film. Adapted from author AJ Finn’s 2018 potboiler, it was originally slated for an October 2019 awards season release, then moved to May 15 of this year, before getting yanked from the calendar entirely. Test screenings reportedly left focus groups uneasy.
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Co-starring Julianne Moore and Jennifer Jason Leigh as are-they-or-aren’t-they doppelgangers taunting Adams’ Anna Fox after she witnesses the crime from behind the blinds of her New York City brownstone, the movie is already primed for controversy. A page-turning February 2019 New Yorker profile of author Finn, whose real name is Dan Mallory, reveals an unstable writer who may or may not have plagiarized the material, and one who repeatedly lied to his publishers about the source of his New York Times bestseller — and his deteriorating psychic state, not unlike his protagonist.
Hot off 2018’s HBO miniseries “Sharp Objects,” Adams is your go-to gal for boozy existential peril. If the trailer released last year is any indication, this film should if nothing else deliver a powerful triumvirate of actresses chewing the hell out of a soapy premise. The screenplay comes from master writer Tracy Letts, who also co-stars as Anna’s much-needed therapist.
Amy Adams’ next star vehicle will be “Nightbitch,” an adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s upcoming novel, from Annapurna Pictures. The six-time Oscar nominee will lead the film as a stay-at-home housewife and mother in a most unusual predicament. This is her latest project after finishing Ron Howard’s Oscar hopeful “Hillbilly Elegy,” also from Netflix, and ahead of the release of “The Woman in the Window.”
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