Variety reports that Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker, Elijah Wood, and Twilight actor Cam Gigandet have all agreed to star in an English-language remake of Das Experiment, the 2001 German thriller directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and starring Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run).
Like the original, this new movie – simply titled The Experiment – will tell the story of a group of individuals selected to participate in a psychological study. They are put into a mock prison in which half of the participants are prisoners, the other half guards. As the experiment progresses, the participants fall deeper into their roles, resulting in abusive treatment.
Prison Break writer Paul Scheuring is directing the movie from his own script, which was based on the novel by Mario Giordano (who also wrote the screenplay of the 2001 movie). Inferno Entertainment and Magnet Media Group are financing the movie, which does not yet have a specific release date.
The story idea for The Experiment is based in part on the 1971 Stanford Prison Project, which involved undergraduates at Stanford participating in a similar study in the basement of the university's psychology building. The study was planned for two weeks but had to be abandoned after six days. You can read more about it on the study's official site.