Mimi Leder to Direct All Quiet on the Western Front Remake

Posted by on July 26th, 2011   Filed under: Books/Comics, Drama, Remakes
Source: Deadline

Mimi Leder has built a name for herself as one of the more successful female directors working today, helming such high-profile films as Deep Impact and Pay It Forward. Now she’s settled on her next project: a remake of All Quiet on the Western Front. Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the story concerns the terrifying trench warfare of WWI that “traumatizes a young and idealistic German soldier on the Western front.” The 1930 film version of the story is widely considered a classic, having won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. Leder was drawn to the project for its brutal depiction of war, commenting, “There is an opportunity to make a great film about war, but it is also an anti-war film, an un-romanticized version of war and its consequences.”

Leder has been out of the movie business for a while now, instead focusing on TV work (although she did helm the straight to DVD film Thick as Thieves a couple years back). Although she hadn’t read the novel or seen the original film when sent the script, she was struck by the themes found in the material and how they still ring true today. Ian Stokell and Lesley Paterson wrote the script and will produce through their Sliding Down Rainbows Entertainment. The goal for the start of production will be late in 2012, so don’t expect this one all that soon. Until more updates are available, do you think you’ll be excited for a retelling of All Quiet on the Western Front?



  • Justice

    Nice! This is one of my favorite books of all time and I’ve been waiting for a realistic WWI movie for a long time. Hopefully she’ll drop out and we can get a better director though.

  • The original 1930 film is stunning.
    There was a made for TV remake in the 70’s, I believe, which I haven’t seen.
    Don’t have a problem with the director – she’s a veteran of the TV show ER, so she knows how to do action+drama, and Peacemaker was an impressive, albeit neglected, debut film. I haven’t watched the others, though.

  • Darksiders

    great. a generic remake of a fantastic film and an amazing book in the works again. she hadn’t seen the original film or read the book before reading the script? so what she’s telling us is that she’s a filmically illiterate as well as being plain old fashioned illiterate as well? What are books? I don’t know. I read the Twilight series on my iPad.

    maybe she can get george clooney to rock that mullet again like she did in the peacemaker.

  • JP

    “Although she hadn’t read the novel or seen the original film when sent the script…”
    This classic novel certainly deserves an in-depth big screen interpretation because it has been 82 years since Milestone’s release. I hope the director heeds Pope’s observation: “A little learning is a dang’rous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring…”