A year after he directed an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn, Alfred Hitchcock would direct his adaptation of an even more memorable du Maurier novel, Rebecca. His 1940 film would be the only Hitchcock film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is a Hollywood classic, a perfect Gothic romance masterpiece starring Joan Fontaine as the mousey Cinderella-esque Mrs. de Winter, opposite Laurence Olivier as the controlling but dashing Maxim de Winter. There’s a dark secret at Maxim’s sprawling estate called Manderley. The great future dame Judith Anderson played Mrs. Danvers, creating one of those screen villains in that club of scary, loathsome manipulators that includes The Wicked Witch of the West, Maleficent, Dolores Umbridge, Mrs. Emerson, and Nurse Ratched. Now 80 years later, relatively unknown director Ben Wheatley (Doctor Who, Free Fire) is bringing his own adaptation to Netflix next month. So who is being cast in the key roles this time?
Archive for September 27, 2020
Coming soon–Hitchcock’s only Best Picture Oscar-winner gets a classy remake
September 27, 2020
Tags: 80th anniversary of Rebecca, Alfred Hitchcock, Ann Dowd, Armie Hammer, Ben Wheatley, best villains, Bill Paterson, Dame Judith Anderson, Daphne du Maurier, Daphne du Maurier movies, Daphne du Maurier novels and stories, Hitchcock's Rebecca, Joan Fontaine, Keeley Hawes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Laurence Olivier, Lily James, Rebecca, Rebecca 2020, Rebecca Netflix, Sam Riley, scary villainesses, Tom Goodman-Hill