Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rebecca’ is Being Remade

The legendary master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, has -- for the most part -- survived the trend of remakes. Sure, there are people like Dario Argento and Brian De Palma who owe a good chunk of their know-how to the man, but with some notable exceptions, his filmography has remained untouched. But now Dreamworks not only has a script but a director for their remake of 'Rebecca.'

This comes from Deadline Hollywood, and they note that Danish filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel (who helmed ‘A Royal Affair’ and wrote the Swedish language version of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo') will be directing the adaptation from a script by Steven Knight, who previously wrote 'Eastern Promises'. The original film was adapted from the Daphne Du Maurier book of the same name, so they can at least suggest that they're doing something new with the material. Du Maurier's work was also adapted into the films 'The Birds,' and 'Don't Look Now,' while 'Rebecca' has been adapted for television repeatedly (we count ten times since 1947).

Still, when it comes to Hitchcock, there's been only been sequels (like the 'Psycho' franchise and 'The Birds II: Land's End') and most famously Gus Van Sant's derided mostly-shot-for-shot remake of 'Psycho' (we'll just pretend the TV movie of 'Rear Window' starring Christopher Reeve doesn't exist). And what's notable about almost all of these films is that they annoy the critical community. Perhaps this, as new take on the source material, will not be so vilified. We doubt it.