Demme To Direct 'The Manchurian Candidate' Remake

Filmmaker Jonathan Demme ("The Truth About Charlie") is negotiating to direct Denzel Washington in the remake of "The Manchurian Candidate," reports Variety.

Both Demme and Washington sparked to a strong script by Daniel Pyne ("The Sum of All Fears"), who was able to make believable the film's premise about soldiers who return from war unable to remember their heroic exploits because they've been brainwashed to commit murder.

In the 1962 original, which was directed by John Frankenheimer, the soldiers returned from the Korean War rewired by communists to assassinate the president of the United States. Its star, Frank Sinatra, was so devastated by the subsequent assassination of President Kennedy that he bought control of the film's rights and kept "Manchurian Candidate" out of circulation for many years. Later, he gave his daughter Nancy permission to pursue a remake.

Demme previously directed Washington in the role of a homophobic lawyer who has a change of heart in "Philadelphia."

Production will begin next fall.