Look, compared to the likes of Jason Bourne or Jack Reacher or Ethan Hunt, “Tom Ripley” doesn’t exactly strike me as ranking near the top of cool-sounding names in thriller-based fiction … but what do I know? The teaser for Netflix’s “Ripley” clearly has other ideas, largely eschewing basic things like establishing plot (it is a teaser, admittedly) in favor of having multiple characters repeat the name Tom Ripley. That’s one way to get general audiences to get those neurons firing and force them to connect the dots to “The Talented Mr. Ripley” without actually saying that this is based on the same pre-existing material, I suppose.
In any case, “Ripley” stars Andrew Scott as the title character along with Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood, Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf, and more. The series is created by Steven Zaillian (the Academy Award-winning writer best known for writing “Schindler’s List” and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” along with creating the HBO series “The Night Of”), who serves as producer, showrunner, writer, and director. “Ripley” will be comprised of eight total episodes and premiere on Netflix on April 4, 2024. Its synopsis reads:
Tom Ripley, a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York, is hired by a wealthy man to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home. Tom’s acceptance of the job is the first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud and murder. The limited series drama is based on Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling Tom Ripley novels.