Miramax’s ‘Debt’: Much of The Same?

A Blind Item today, ladies and gentlemen.
What studio company seems to be ripping off Dreamworks’ 2005 critically-acclaimed Israeli hit about hit men?
Taking the hint from the marketplace, Miramax Films is doing a remake of Israeli thriller The Debt. Matthew Vaughn of Layer Cake fame wrote the script with his writing partner Jane Goldman, which centers on three Mossad agents twenty years after WWII’s end. The Mossad agents get tapped when a Nazi criminal (the “Surgeon of Birkenau” – a Josef Mengele reference, anyone?) is still alive and on the loose, leading to a hot pursuit across Europe.
Hmm. I feel like I’ve maybe seen this before? A Steven Spielberg labeled product, if I am correct? That may be simplistic way to distill this script.

As much as I love European locales and Jewish spies, try watching the original first – Assaf Bernstein’s 2007 film “HaHov”. The trailer on the film’s website hopefully gives an accurate account of what we can expect from Vaughn and Miramax.
Like the original, Vaughn’s script needs to be set both in the 1960s and 1990s to keep a similar narrative. Apart from the obvious distinction of time, the similarities between the film Spielberg made about Mossad agents and the film Vaughn wants to make about Mossad agents end. While “Munich” seemed more a show of brute force by Israel, “The Debt” may prove to be grander and keeping the humanity “Munich” so lacked. It’s easy to hate a bad guy, especially when the bad guy is a Nazi bad guy. But what if the good guys – the Mossad agents – let the bad guy get away? And, as unthinkable as it sounds, what if the bad guy and the good guy find common ground?
With this psychological thriller now in the pipeline, Miramax is in play with many heady Euro flicks due out soon, including WWII summer release “Brideshead Revisted” and the 1920s Paris flick “Cheri”.

So far Vaughn’s participation doesn’t go past the script phase and his next directing vehicle might be the blond-haired superhero called Thor.