Per Collider, Ben Wheatley is set to direct a new version of Daphne du Maurier‘s classic 1938 novel Rebecca that will star Lily James and Armie Hammer in the lead roles. Netflix is teaming with Working Title on the project.
It seems that the word “remake” is being avoided, but the new film will be based on the same story as Alfred Hitchcock‘s 1940 film of the same name which starred Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.
Jane Goldman has penned the script which follows a newly-married young woman who visits her husband’s rich family estate, only to find herself in the shadow of his dead first wife – the mysterious Rebecca.
Wheatley is an interesting name for this project. He’s got a dark thriller like Kill List under his belt, but also a comedy in Sightseers and another adaptation of an acclaimed novel in High-Rise. Whatever your opinion on him, he certainly has a unique style and will likely bring something unexpected to this remake.
James is coming off the hit Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again earlier this summer, and this will be her second current collaboration with Working Title as she is starring in Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis‘ untitled musical, which arrives next year. This will be Hammer’s second collaboration with Wheatley after Free Fire, while he’ll next be seen in On The Basis Of Sex and then the thriller Hotel Mumbai.
Although this new version of Rebecca may not officially be classed as a remake and is likely specifically a new version of the novel, it will be linked with the Hitchcock film no matter what. That could spell doom – Gus Van Sant‘s Psycho, anyone? – but could also be an opportunity to give an old story a fascinating contemporary spin. Production is slated to start in the spring.
#Peace.Love.Rebecca
