Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most memorable auteur directors of all-time, but surprisingly he only received one Academy Award. Hitchcock won an Oscar for Best Picture on his first American project, Rebecca, released in 1940.
Rebecca starred Laurence Olivier who remarries after losing his first wife. His new wife is then haunted by the spirit of his lost love, the title character Rebecca. The eerie tale was based on a 1938 book of the same name by Daphne du Maurier.
DreamWorks and Working Title are revisiting the original material by du Maurier and have brought Steven Knight on board to write the revised screenplay. Knight is the hand behind Eastern Promises directed by David Cronenberg. He was also most recently responsible for adapting Dan Brown‘s The Lost Symbol.
Over the years, Hitchcock films have been skirted around when it comes to remakes despite their epic place in film history. The majority of his greatest hits have been left untouched with their originals gathering dust waiting to be updated. Rebecca, even though it won an Academy Award, has been wildly underrated and should have been on the top of the list for studio executives considering films to remake for years. Finally, fans of Hitchcock will have their chance to admire his work in a different light.
Are you a Hitchcock fan? What do you think of the choice to remake Rebecca?!