Hitchcock's Rebecca Getting the Remake Treatment

No one should be surprised anymore at these announcements, but: DreamWorks and Working Title Films are remaking Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar-winning noir Rebecca, because nothing is sacred. At least they've got people at the wheel with respectable creds; veteran producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are onboard while Eastern Promises screenwriter Steven Knight is scripting based on Daphne du Maurier's original 1938 novel, which saw a few deviations when Hitch made his version (which, incidentally, went on to be the only Best Picture Oscar-winner of his career).

The 1940 film, produced by David O. Selznick, starred Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier in the tale of a woman who finds her new husband and his servants still obsessed with his dead wife, whose memory haunts their home. It went on to garner 11 Oscar nominations.

A lofty bar, to be sure, but "Rebecca from the makers of Eastern Promises and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (not to mention just about every Coen brothers movie)" already sounds way more promising than "To Catch a Thief by the guys who made xXx," no?

• DreamWorks to remake Hitchcock's 'Rebecca' [Variety]