Helen Mirren Joins Anthony Hopkins In 'Alfred Hitchcock And The Making of Psycho'

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by Kevin Jagernauth
December 7, 2011 4:58 PM
6 Comments

Looks like we're gonna have two Alfred Hitchcock movies on the way, and in a rare feat, they both look promising. Just yesterday it was revealed that Toby Jones and Sienna Miller were heading up"The Girl," which focuses on the director's obsessive relationship with Tippi Hedren, who starred in "The Birds" and "Marnie." But in case you forgot, over at Fox Searchlight, another movie has been brewing from "Anvil!" director Sacha Gervasi with the self-explanatory title "Alfred Hitchcock And The Making of Psycho." In his flick, Anthony Hopkins plays the legendary director and now he's got one of the classiest gals around to hang off of his arm.

THR reports that none other than Helen Mirren will co-star in the pic, playing his wife, Alma Reville marking the first time these two have worked together on-screen. The subject matter is great stuff for movie buffs. "Psycho" was a project that Paramount hated. Hitchcock was originally going to direct "No Bail For The Judge" with Audrey Hepburn but had to scrap those plans when the actress became pregnant. So he moved on to "Psycho," and the studio was so negative on the project they gave him a paltry budget and resources, leading the director to back the movie through his own production shingle, build his own sets and utilize crew members from his TV show "Alfred Hitchock Presents."

So where did the wife fit into all of this? Alma reportedly found a blooper in the movie just before it was about to be released, when she noticed the dead Marion blinked and/or took a breath (depends on who you ask). It was during a post-mortem sequence which was scrapped as a result. The question for us will be who will take on the roles of Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, the latter of whom endured a week long shoot just to land the three minute long shower sequence. We'll be curious to see who grabs those important roles.

The flim is gearing up to shoot in April which means that Gervais's "My Dinner With Hervé" with Peter Dinklage and Dominic Cooper seems to be on the backburner for now. A disappointment to be sure, but we can't complain too much as this project seems pretty great.

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More: Helen Mirren, Hitchcock

6 Comments

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Sven | December 8, 2011 1:33 AMReply

Suggestions for Garfield: good choice!
How about Natalie Portman for Janet Leigh? (with hair coloured, of course)
TRW | December 7, 2011 8:50 PMReply

I'm just going to say this right now, Andrew Garfield needs to play a young Anthony Perkins. -- Yes. The first time I saw AG in a film I thought, 'He looks exactly like Anthony Perkins"
ronette | December 7, 2011 8:22 PMReply

I just can't fathom how they'll turn the making of this film into something compelling... puzzles me really.
Sandra | December 7, 2011 6:33 PMReply

I'm just going to say this right now, Andrew Garfield needs to play a young Anthony Perkins.
afg | December 7, 2011 5:42 PMReply

I loved "Anvil" but this stuff irks me to no end ... how many bad movies is Hollywood going to make about actors and movies from the past? Almost every "movie about movies/actors playing actors biopic" has been terrible and most are completely pointless, good performances or not
James | December 7, 2011 5:34 PMReply

Small mistake above, PSYCHO was a Paramount film, not Universal. It was Hitchcock's last film for Paramount. Hitchcock self-financed the film when Paramount balked and did shoot it on the Universal lot. Paramount released it however. As Hitchcock owned it, he later sold the rights to Universal, who control it today. Confusing chain of events.