Alfred Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock, and Alfred Hitchcock
Monday, April 23, 2012 at 2:22PM Look! It's Anthony Hopkins and Toby Jones as the great Alfred Hitchcock and the great Alfred Hitchcock in the upcoming movies Alfred Hitchcock and The Making of Psycho (2013) about, you guessed it, the making of Psycho, and The Girl (2012... post production but I'm guessing also 2013) about the making of The Birds. We keep forgetting that the second one exists (Cinema Blend recently reminded us while talking to Tippi Hedren at the Tribeca Film Festival) which is the second time that's happened to a Toby Jones biopic. First Capote, now Hitch? Poor guy.
All of which begs for us to make it a trinity...
Who else should play Hitchcock and which movie other than Psycho & The Birds deserves this "making of" dramatization. For some reason I'm tempted to say Frenzy (1972) to get a late career trying to keep up with the times mixed reception drama but I could go for Torn Curtain (1966) just to see who they'd cast as Julie Andrews and Paul Newman. Or maybe my ol' favorite Rope (1948) for the one shot technical challenge and lots of queerness courtesy of Farley Granger.
You?
Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho, The Birds, Tippi Hedren, biopics, on the set
Reader Comments (15)
Come on, it's gotta be Vertigo, with Hitch obsessed with Kim Novak.
It always surprised me how Timothy Spall has never played Hitchcock, since he really looks like him. He was supposed to star apposite January Jones in BBC's The Girl, but unfortunately both were eventually replaced by Toby Jones and Sienna Miller.
I'd go for the making of 'Rear Window', because is easily my favourite Hitchcok movie and would love to see who they'd cast as the stars. I'd go for Frances McDormand as Thelma Ritter, John Hannah as James Stewart ('cos he looks so much like good old Jimmy!) and for Grace Kelly I'd have a hard time to choose between Nicole Kidman (she could reprise the role from her upcoming 'Grace of Monaco'), January Jones (for obvious 'look alike' reasons, although as much as I like her as Betty Draper I doubt she has the chops) or Charlize Theron (if it's not Kidman, I can't think of a better A-lister to play Kelly).
Rope would be GREAT. There's all that stuff with Hitch wanting Cary Grant for the film but Grant saying no cause he was worried it would make him look gay by association. Plus, Farley Granger and Arthur Laurents were living together as lovers at the time, and Hitchcock kept playing weird games with them pretending as if he didn't know they were gay and living together, like sending them separate invitations for things, etc. He was a nutcase.
Actually the best 'making of' biopic would probably be 'Under Capricorn,' a project Hitchcock started entirely for one reason, to attempt to keep Ingrid Bergman working with him. He really had some sick psychosexual things for her, and when she married Roberto Rosselini it killed him. The ultimate betrayal! Not just a lover, but a lover who's also a DIRECTOR!
I'm rather annoyed that Hopkins has gotten the role after all the great parts he had in his career - you'd think he'd share the goods. Michael Gambon would be perfect as Hitchcock, as far as I'm concerned, and Miranda Richardson is a dead ringer for Alma Reville.
Just rewatched "Shame" last night and I can't think of any 2 actors better suited for "Making North by Northwest" than Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. As for Hitchcock himself, I'm not so sure.
Any with Cary Grant so that we could see Clooney finally playing him. That or Lifeboat to see his work relationship with Tallulah Bankhead.
Patryk + iggy: I'd buy Michael Fassbender as Cary Grant over Clooney, mostly because Grant aged very quickly between North By Northwest and Walk, Don't Run, but up until that point, he had that weird thing that sometimes happens to movie stars of happening to look perpetually thirty most of his career. Clooney really does look fifty and any "production journal" film sounds weighted toward the director and any "problem cast members" by nature, so I'm unsure if Clooney would want to have what might amount to a cameo. Bruce Campbell has aged less (eyes are wider, face has less lines in it and, even if he uses hair dye, would currently still convince in that "perpetually thirty" nature) and would likely be more willing than Fassbender or Clooney (both very hot commodities right now) to take an extremely small part, if it winds up that way. If Cary Grant wasn't a challenge cast member, but, say, James Mason was, you've maybe got Eddie Marsan more interested than Clooney. Carey Mulligan though, Patryk? Umm...Carey Mulligan looks and sounds way too...YOUNG. (Haven't fully seen Shame for fully accurate comparison.) I understand Mulligan's twenty six, but she's so sweetly young in persona and looks that she currently comes across as early twenties. Eva Marie Saint was thirty in North By Northwest and looked and sounded it. So, I'd suggest trying again on that front.
I would say Rear Window as well simply because it's my fav Hitchcock pic and I'd love to see who plays the actors.
I'd watch any of those already listed, especially "Rope" and "Vertigo". I like the Timothy Spall suggestion, so lets keep him and have a film about the making of "Rebecca". If Branagh's too old to play a 1940's version of Olivier then cast Michael Fassbender and have Evan Rachel Wood play Joan Fontaine. Maybe Olivia Williams or Julianne Moore could play Judith Anderson, but I'm really stuck on who could play David O. Selznick. You can't tell the story of the making of "Rebecca" without addressing the butting of heads between Selznick and Hitchcock.
Possibly The Paradine Case because of the tension between Hitch and Selznic. I've often wondered why Jennifer Jones never made it into a Hitchcock film.
I want a post-modern multi-actor conceit biopic of Hitchcock making Rebecca. That way, any great actor could play Hitchcock. Could you imagine Tilda Swinton's take on Hitchcock? What about Juliette Binoche ranting about how much she hates actors or Robert Downey Jr. cracking wise in an unending series of puns and misplaced expectations? They can all take on different aspects of his personality and chew the scenery for 90 minutes.
you are all brilliant and I would see any of those movies ;)
but i think i have to change my answer to ROPE above all else. It just would be too interesting to not be imminently rewatchable
Wait, so the Toby Jones one is a TV movie? So we could have a Golden Globes ceremony where two different actors get awarded for playing the same man in two different projects? It feels like Queen Elizabeth all over again.
As clunky a title as "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho", at least it was a bit livelier than mere "Hitchcock". Talk about a yawn.
So many of Hitchcock's movies are just perfect the way they are. But an imperfect one, because they just can't quite solve the female psychology, is "Marnie". I'd like to see some screenwriter and director come up with a clever modern take on this. I'd like to see an ending where the heroine gets away with it, rather than being caught, punished, and explained.
But what a showcase for a versatile actress, doing all the cons with different appearances. Would Tilda Swinton be too old? Can Jessica Chastain change her looks enough? Could everyone in the cast be tall, to surround Charlize Theron?