It is fitting that production for the biopic Hitchcock began on Friday the 13th. On that day, coincidentally, I found myself watching The Silence of the Lambs. It was edited for television, but it still sends chills down my spine watching Anthony Hopkins talk about eating someone’s liver “with some fava beans and a nice chianti.” He won an Oscar for that role with good reason, he’s freaking scary as a psychopath. I think he’s the perfect person to play Alfred Hitchcock, the director who brought fear to the mainstream audience. It doesn’t hurt that Hopkins is absolutely able to transform into the famous director. Here’s the photo so you can compare for yourself:
I was 12 years old when I first encountered the original master of horror. It was back in 2000 while visiting Universal Studios in Florida with my family that we experienced an attraction called Alfred Hitcock: The Art of Movie Making. I can recall watching him explain some of his tricks of the slasher trade, and his strange way of talking. I can even still see the set they built, a likeness of the Bates Motel from Psycho. So before I had ever seen a frame of Hitchcock’s famous works, I knew how he was able to frighten the pants off of people in the 1950′s. But even knowing that they used chocolate syrup for blood in the famous shower scene, I was still freaked out.
And for good reason – Hitchcock is the single greatest influence of what we horror fans love. There’s a reason that Wes Craven killed off his big name star Drew Barrymore in Scream – Alfred Hitchcock did it first and proved that it was a draw. Music in scary movies like The Thing, Halloween, The Exorcist, Friday the 13th, Jaws, The Shining, and A Nightmare on Elm Street (I could continue but it’s a long list already) are all memorable because Psycho showed them how it can effect the audience.
So any movie about Alfred Hitchcock is bound to be as exciting as any of his films. Just reading his famous quotes on imdb.com was enough to make me smile. He’s an interesting man, who had a very different view about movie making. My favorite quote? “Film your murders like love scenes, and your love scenes like murders.” The movie is based off the book by Stephen Rebello titled Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. Getting a chance to see the man behind such iconic movies is reason enough to see this movie. But with the amazing make-up job, I’m sure even the Academy Awards will be taking notice of Anthony Hopkins (again) – if he can pull off portraying the rest of the acclaimed director.
The film is slated for 2013 with a release date to be determined. It also stars Scarlett Johanson as Janet Leigh (the actress from that shower scene), Jessica Biel as Vera Miles, James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates), Ralph Macchio (from The Karate Kid) as screenwriter James Stephano, and Helen Mirren as Alma Reville – Hitchcock’s wife. With that impressive cast (I’m especially excited to see Ralph Macchio- dude hasn’t done anything since the 80′s) it’s sure to be a good time.
