"The rain didn't last long"

Alfred Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock, and Alfred Hitchcock

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?

Take Three: Anne Heche

Craig here with this week's edition of the character actor column "Take Three". Today: Anne Heche

Take One: Birth (2004)
Whilst watching Birth I’m sure you, like me, were thinking: just what the heck is Anne Heche doing in Central Park? Near the start of Jonathan Glazer’s reincarnation baffler Heche acts in mysterious ways. She suspiciously sneaks out of a hotel lobby and onto the snowy streets of Manhattan. She’s rustling around in the bushes, digging a hole. Is she burying the gift intended for Anna (Nicole Kidman)? Is it even a gift? It looks like some sort of proof, evidence. Her character, Clara, holds the film’s secrets from the get-go. In accordance with the way Glazer structures the script in these early scenes, fragmented by Sam Sneade and Claus Wehlisch’s editing, Clara becomes an enigma we know we'll worryingly come back to later.

Heche’s scenes with Sean (Cameron Bright) after the friction of the plot has been replaced by psychic damage throw a puzzling curveball (the buried package!) to the remainder of the film. These moments provide us with Heche’s best, and most tense, work to date. Insidious, slightly witchy and perverse, Heche reveals a reverse deus ex machina that shows Clara to be the queasily spiteful and questionable presence of the story. Her face, shot in extreme close-up, displays a deliciously evil sheen as she devastates the young boy. On evidence here, I’m baffled as to why filmmakers aren’t snapping Heche up to play the kinds of complicated icy queens usually reserved for Tilda Swinton. Birth features an all-round stellar ensemble but if you haven't seen it recently watch it again to see Heche wrench entire scenes away from the lot of them.

Two more Heche triumphs after the jump including Psycho (1998). Yes, that Psycho...

Click to read more ...

Psyched Over "Making of 'Psycho'"?

Jose here. Biopics are always a controversial topic. People get riled over the casting choices, the director, the time period they cover etc. (Anyone still remember when Julia Roberts was interested in playing Kate Hepburn?)

One of the biggest upcoming biopics officially begins production tomorrow. It's none other than Hitchcock (based on Stephen Robello's Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho) which will chronicle the making of one of the greatest movies of all time.  The movie will be directed by Sacha Gervasi (of Anvil! The Story of Anvil semi-fame) and as of now has one of the most fascinating casts assembled in recent history to pay tribute to this legendary movie,

Anthony Hopkins headlines as Hitch and Helen Mirren will play his wife Alma Reville. Scarlett Johansson and James D'arcy are set to play Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins respectively (although the other way around would've been interesting too, where's Todd Haynes when you need him?)

Why don't we just take a look at them with their real life counterparts?

Click to read more ...

"We have 12 Vacancies. 12 Cabins. 12 Links"

Kill Screen imagines Downton Abbey as a card based RPG. Love the artifact "pants of modernity"
Deja View a relic brochure from a time when Disney was seeking animators.
Irish Times is pissed about Streep's Oscar win and illustrates, again, that a backlash grows. But here's the interesting part...

One can think of many star actresses...who will submerge themselves in films bigger than themselves. But Streep has to be bigger than the movie, to the point where she can become, in effect, a substitute for it.

You may recall we were talking about just this fascinating issue (within the Oscar symposium). It's hardly a Streep-Only topic. What does it mean to "carry" a movie and should an actor ever be asked to? 

Rope of Silicon has "sexy" issues with Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh in the upcoming feature Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho (omg please change the title). So do I and the first being that Scarjo, who I enjoy, is very different than Janet Leigh in body, age and looks. She might be able to summon up the contemplative paranoia mood of Leigh but otherwise it's a huge miss if you ask me.
Guardian odd lawsuit of day. Sandra Bullock is pissed that a watch company is selling a watch by comparing it to her Blind Side look.
Coming Soon Disney must've liked the response to titling Rapunzel Tangled because their next fairy tale musical will be based on The Snow Queen and it's called Frozen. Kristen Bell, Veronica Mars herself, gets lead vocal duties.
/Film remembers Black Swan with a new behind the scenes photo gallery. I don't remember Natalie wearing this white cloak thing onstage. Have I lost my mind or just my short term memory?
ioncinema details a new "slippery nature of truth" project called True Story starring Jonah Hill and James Franco. Brad Pitt's Plan B is producing. Pitt has good taste and this sounds interesting. 
Pajiba lists the 25 biggest animated hit (adjusted for inflation). Pixar doesn't even make the top 10!
Indiewire lists films they hope show at Cannes this summer

And even though I always try to let each year's Oscars go within a week's time of the ceremony, I find myself still reading Oscar recaps since I have emerged from my cave of silence. I did like these two overviews of the ceremony from two of my favorite online peeps, The Self Styled Siren and Glenn at Stale Popcorn. So if you also share the Oscar sickness, read 'em.