“It’s an Internet thriller, it’s a nightmare vision of an Internet murder, and the way that our voyeuristic bloodlust [drives] it,” says Burnett. The idea? “Basically, what would happen if there’s a web site where people are being murdered live, and you knew that the more people that logged in, the faster the person died? So if you log in to watch, you’re contributing to the speed of their death? And millions of people are watching it. It’s a bit like Network, with the intensity of The Silence of the Lambs, but it also has a social aspect to it. It’s an indictment of our voyeurism.”
OK, the actual nuts-and-bolts plot slugline sounds totally down-market, to be honest, but Hoblit has a nice touch with material, as well as getting performances ranging from really solid to flat-out great from young actors. For those reasons, and not its “indictment of voyeurism” (doesn’t Hollywood actually thrive on voyeurism?) I’ll be looking forward to this one. Oh, and because of Diane Lane. She totally rocks. Colin Hanks, Billy Burke and Joseph Cross (Running with Scissors) also star; Untraceable is currently set for release January 25, 2008 from Sony’s Screen Gems division.