Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Suspicion’ Set For A Remake, From ‘The Killing’ Showrunner Veena Sud
Last week DreamWorks and Working Title Films announced that Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) will write aremakeofAlfred Hitchcock’sRebecca, or perhaps more accurately that Knight will write a new adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s novelRebecca, which was adapted into Hitchcock’s film, as well as a couple others.
Now there is another Hitchcock film being remade, or re-adapted. This time it is the 1932 novelBefore the Fact, byFrancis Iles, which Hitchcock directed as the 1941 filmSuspicion. Heading up the adaptation isThe KillingshowrunnerVeena Sud, who will script.
Varietysays that this effort is from Montecito Pictures, the same company that is working onAlfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, with Anthony Hopkinsattachedto play Hitch. Paramount will release whatever comes of this new version ofSuspicion, while Fox Searchlight has the film aboutPsycho’s creation. (Two years ago we heard that Will Smith was looking at a new version ofSuspicionas astarring vehicle, but that never came to fruition.)
Here’s the synopsis of Iles' original novel. In the Hitchcock version, the leads were Joan Fontaine and Cary Grant, with Fontaine winning an Oscar for her performance. It isn’t quite clear if this new script will be based more on the film or the original novel. The trailer forSuspicionis below the novel synopsis, just so you can get a taste of both. In this case, the film’s ending was changed quite a bit from that of the novel.
Before the Fact tells the tale of wealthy but plain Lina Mclaidlaw, who marries the charming and feckless Johnny Aysgarth against the advice of her father. Lina is certain she can change him for the better, until she is forced to acknowledge that he is a compulsive liar, a crook and a murderer. But still she loves him, while fearing she will inevitably become one of his victims.
