Hitchcock is still Influencing Movies with PLAYING JOE and HOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD
It’s good to know Alfred Hitchcock is still inspiring the creation of movies. They may not be up to the standards that he has set, but people still try. There are two script deals that recently went down, and both of these scripts have been compared to the films of the Master of Suspense.
The first film is called Playing Joe, described as a Hitchcock-style romantic thriller in the same vein of North by Northwest. The story is set in Rio and has the key plot points of memory loss and recovery.
Castle Rock is the production company that optioned the script by Jeff Miller, and they have brought in a new screenwriter, Nicholas Meyer, to rewrite. Meyer’s has written three Star Trek movies and has directed two of them including Wrath of Kahn, so that’s gotta say something.
The second Hitchcock style film is House at the End of the World, a physiological thriller that is being descrbed as a psycho for a younger audience. One of the films producers Aaron Ryder said,
We believe this will be to 'Psycho' what 'Disturbia' was to 'Rear Window,' but with the addition of a strong female lead.
I actually enjoyed Disturbia, but it had a decent director, and Shia wasn’t in every other movie at the time that it came out. This new story was developed by Jonathan Mostow (U-571, Terminator 3), and David Loucka and Mark Tonderai have written the script and will direct the film.
I love Hitchock’s films and I think it’s nice that people are looking to his work for inspiration. I just hope they aren’t complete knock-offs, and I don’t really like how studios feel they have to compare the film with Hitchcock when it will in no way live up to what he has done.
Do you enjoy seeing the amazing old school Hitchcock films inspiring some of the newer movies coming out?