'The Girl On The Train' News: Photos Give First Glimpse Of Emily Blunt As Rachel Watson
The first photos from the upcoming big-screen adaptation of the best-selling novel "The Girl on the Train" have arrived, and they show the girl on the train, Rachel Watson, played by Golden Globe nominee Emily Blunt.
The film, which is based on the blockbuster psychological thriller of the same name by British author Paula Hawkins, is being helmed by Tate Taylor, who also directed 2011's "The Help" and 2010's "Winter's Bone." The 32-year-old English actress Blunt stars as Watson, an alcoholic struggling with the aftermath of her divorce.
In the novel, Watson, still reeling from the dissolution of her marriage, has lost her job and is living in an acquaintance's extra bedroom. Trying to conceal the depth of her downfall from her housemate, she leaves the house every day, pretending to go to work.
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On her daily train commute, she passes the house she used to share with ex-husband Tom (Justin Theroux), who now lives with his new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) and their young daughter. A few houses away from Tom's lives a young, good-looking couple with whom Watson has developed an obsession. Not knowing who they are, she dubs them "Jason" (Luke Evans) and "Jess" (Hayley Bennett).
Watson's world is turned upside down when she spies "Jess" in an act of betrayal, and when she discovers that the young woman has been reported missing not long after.
"You can't avoid the puns with this movie — she's a train wreck," Taylor told Entertainment Weekly. But though the character is flawed, she isn't without some redeeming qualities. "Rachel does things that we all think, and we all wish we could do," the director said.
Though the novel is set in London, the film adaptation is set in Manhattan. "It adds another layer of loneliness," the director explained. "She's trying to reclaim or redefine herself, and yet she's not in her native land."
"The Girl on the Train" hits theaters on October 7, 2016.
