Only a few days after Dreamworks announced they plan on remaking the Hitchcock/ Daphne du Maurier classic psychological romantic melodrama REBECCA, Paramount has decided to get into the game by remaking SUSPICION. This isn’t the first Hitchcock film to be tossed around into the “bad idea jeans” pile: TO CATCH A THIEF is also still in play.
SUSPICION, the 1941 romantic psychological thriller, revolved around a dowdy woman (Joan Fontaine) who marries a handsome and charming man (Cary Grant) despite her wealthy father’s disapproval. Soon after their honeymoon, she begins to discover he has proven irresponsible with his investments and has been lying to him. After his friend turns up dead in Paris, her suspicions that her new husband is trying to kill her for insurance money grow, as does his use of the phrase “monkey face.” How will they ever find an actress willing to play “dowdy” and be called “Monkey Face” for the months long shoot?!
Hitchcock’s film was famously changed from the dark novel by Francis Illes that it was based on to keep Grant’s heroic image in tact. Veena Sud – THE KILLING’s showrunner – will pen the screenplay and direct. It’s currently not known whether she’ll stick closer to either to Before the Fact, or Hitchcock’s film version. But if she’s smart, she’ll base it on the book and give it her own unique twist.
Hollywood has had a love affair with remaking Hitchcock classics but have mostly been received to poor reviews and disastrous box office numbers. DIAL M FOR MURDER turned into THE PERFECT MURDER which was lauded by critics and audiences alike. STRANGERS ON A TRAIN was loosely remade into the dark and mean spirited THROW MAMMA FROM THE TRAIN. Let’s also not forget Gus Van Sant’s ill advised shot for shot remake of PSYCHO. DISTURBIA, which was a loose-ish remake of REAR WINDOW, has been the only remake to do well both critically and commercially.
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