It’s been suggested in recent years that Hollywood’s running out of ideas and that all we get from Tinsel Town is an endless chain of remakes, sequels, and superhero movie spin-offs. That’s bollocks, to be honest. Some incredible standalone films have come out in recent years, including electrifying indies and some of the best horror movies ever made.
It’s hardly like the Hollywood of yesteryear was always putting out new ideas either. Sequels and remakes have been part of the tapestry of filmmaking for a long time now, and it’s given us some truly great films. If we didn’t remake things, we’d never have gotten The Departed, Insomnia, True Lies, and the best alien movie ever made, The Thing.
Yet sometimes Hollywood goes too far, and they stretch even the legendary patience of those who write about film and TV on the internet for a living. They’re remaking Vertigo, arguably the best movie ever made, and we can’t for the life of us work out why.
In case you’ve never seen Vertigo, it’s a masterpiece. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the thriller movie tells the story of John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson, a retired detective who Gavin Elster hires to follow his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak). Inevitably John and Madeleine fall in love, but not everything is as it seems.
According to Deadline though a remake may be in the works at Paramount with Steven Knight, who created Peaky Blinders for the BBC, is set to write the script, which will star Robert Downey Jr, presumably as John.
Now Knight may have written one of the best TV series of all time (and he’s working on a Star Wars movie), and we love Downey Jr in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but can they improve on the original? We’re sceptical. It’s slightly unfair to judge the film before it’s even been announced, but remaking a Hitchcock movie’s been done before (we’re looking at you, Gus Van Sant’s Psycho), and it didn’t work out.
That said, The Man Who Knew Too Much was a Hitchcock remake, and that one turned out great…although it was remade by Hitchcock himself. If you love great films, check out our list of the best comedy movies, we’ve also got a list of all the new movies coming in 2023.