adaptations

Scott Frank and Anya Taylor-Joy to Follow Up Queen’s Gambit With Nabokov’s Laughter in the Dark

Photo: Netflix

The Queen’s Gambit co-creator Scott Frank and star Anya Taylor-Joy unexpectedly dominated the Netflix game this fall. Now, according to Frank, the pair is resetting the board for a much darker game, with an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s 1932 novel Laughter in the Dark. Frank discussed their upcoming creative reunion on the Watch podcast over at the Ringer, calling the project “a valentine to movies. I’m going to do it as a film noir and a movie within a movie, and it’s a really nasty, wonderful, thriller.”

Initially released as an English translation under the name Camera Obscura, only for Nabokov to publish his own translation in 1938, Laughter in the Dark follows the story of Albert Albinus, a married middle-aged art critic, and Margot Peters, a 17-year-old aspiring actress with whom he is obsessed. After Albert’s wife learns of their affair and moves out, Margot enlists her former lover Axel Rex to help her financially (and psychologically) bleed Albert dry.

Scott Frank, Anya Taylor-Joy Working on Nabokov Adaptation