Anthony Hopkins in Talks to Play Alfred Hitchcock

The “Master o Suspense”, Alfred Hitchcock will finally get a bio-pic, courtesy of Sacha Gervasi, the director of Anvil! The Story of Anvil. According to 24 Frames, Gervasi is currently in negotiations with Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Pictures to write and direct a film based on Stephen Rebello’s 1990 book titled Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The book, which documents in detail the production of Hitchcock’s 1960 classic Psycho, has previously had drafts written by Rebello and Black Swan writer John McLaughlin. Well now Reitman, Rebello and Gervais hope to finally finish the script and get the job done. There has never yet been a full-length biopic of Hitchcock (which is surprising considering he is one of cinema’s most influential directors) but many have tried – all have failed.

According to Heat Vision, Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins is rumoured to be the first choice to play Hitch, but its not his first time courting the role. Apparently Hopkins was attached to a previous iteration of the project with Running With Scissors director and Glee creator Ryan Murphy directing and Helen Mirren starring opposite Hopkins

THR added that in addition to adapting the core of Rebello’s book about the making of Psycho, the John McLaughlin script has at its core the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and his wife, editor and assistant director Alma Reville.

It is also important to note that neither Sacha Gervasi nor Anthony Hopkins have officially been signed on, but everything seems to be pointing in their direction.

Here’s an overview of the book: Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho [from Wikipedia]:

Contents show

First published in May 1990 by Dembner Books and distributed by W.W. Norton and Company, the book details every aspect of the creation of director Alfred Hitchcock’s famous thriller Psycho released to theatres in 1960. From Hitchcock’s acquisition of the original novel by Robert Bloch to his work with two different screenwriters, casting, filming, editing, scoring, and promotion, the book takes readers into the day-to-day lives of moviemakers who believed they were making a modestly-budgeted, black-and-white shocker that represented a radical departure from the elegant, suspenseful films that had made director Hitchcock’s reputation, including Rope, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and North by Northwest.

The project Hitchcock tackled in part as an experiment to compete with financially-successful, low-budget, youth-oriented horror movies went on to astound many by becoming a cultural watershed, an international box-office success, a film classic, and a forerunner of the violent, disorienting films and real-events of the turbulent ‘Sixties.

First published in May 1990 by Dembner Books and distributed by W.W. Norton and Company, the book details every aspect of the creation of director Alfred Hitchcock’s famous thriller Psycho released to theatres in 1960. From Hitchcock’s acquisition of the original novel by Robert Bloch to his work with two different screenwriters, casting, filming, editing, scoring, and promotion, the book takes readers into the day-to-day lives of moviemakers who believed they were making a modestly-budgeted, black-and-white shocker that represented a radical departure from the elegant, suspenseful films that had made director Hitchcock’s reputation, including Rope, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and North by Northwest.

The project Hitchcock tackled in part as an experiment to compete with financially-successful, low-budget, youth-oriented horror movies went on to astound many by becoming a cultural watershed, an international box-office success, a film classic, and a forerunner of the violent, disorienting films and real-events of the turbulent ‘Sixties.