Hitchcock Redux
Remember when there were two movies about writer Truman Capote, one of them with Toby Jones in the lead role?
We will soon be treated to two movies about director Alfred Hitchcock, one of them with Toby Jones in the lead role. Both are based on books.
The Girl, which airs on HBO on October 20th, is about Hitchcock’s relationship with Tippi Hedren, the star of The Birds. Sienna Miller plays Hedren and Toby Jones, the driector. It is based on Donald Spoto’s Spellbound By Beauty (RH/Three Rivers), which examines Hitchcock’s obsessive fascination with all his leading ladies.
Anthony Hopkins has the lead in the theatrical film, Hitchcock, based on the 1990 book, Hitchcock!: Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello, being re-released in January by Soft Skull Press. Helen Mirren plays Hitchcock’s wife, Alma with Scarlett Johansson as Psycho‘s star, Janet Leigh. No U.S. release date has been set. Earlier this summer, the Daily Mail published side-by-side shots of the stars on set and their real-life counterparts.
In addition, Bates Motel, a prequel to Psycho is in production for an A&E TV series. It was just announced that Vera Farmiga will play the creepy mother of young Norman Bates. Pscyho itself was based on a 1959 horror novel by Robert Bloch, which was re-released in 2010 by Overlook Press.