Ridley and Tony Scott are producing TELL TALE, a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell Tale Heart.”

Scott Free Productions, the production company by brothers Tony and Ridley, are setting up TELL TALE from a Dave Callaham (DOOM) script. Michael Cuesta, director of L.I.E. and the TV show “Dexter,” is set to helm according to Hollywood Reporter.

Poe’s short tale follows an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity despite his calculated murder of an old man. The murderer cuts the body into pieces and hides it under the floorboards. The narrator’s guilt manifests itself in the hallucination that the man’s heart is still beating under the floorboards.

The film is going into production before the strike. Casting now under-way on the $20 million picture, which will shoot early next year.

Despite the fact that the story is very short, I think this could easily be stretched into a feature. I am curious to see if they will isolate the murderer and focus more on his increasing insanity OR if they will go the Hollywood route and take out everything that made the story good in the first place. If Hollywood had its way, the murderer would have a complete identity including 30 minutes of back-story.

Minimalism is key here, but I have a feeling that the inexperienced director and scriptor may pleasantly surprise us.

- Molly Celaschi