Stoker marks the latest in a long line of risky independent pictures for the enduringly talented and ageless Nicole Kidman.  The Paperboy, Rabbit Hole, Margot at the Wedding, Birth – Kidman isn’t afraid to take a chance on risky material or art-house filmmakers. In Stoker, Kidman co-stars as Evelyn, the neglectful mother to India, a weird and troubled girl.  Evelyn doesn’t know what to make of her daughter – her own flesh and blood a stranger even to herself.  After her husband suddenly dies, Evelyn finds herself drawn to her husband’s long-thought-lost brother Charlie, unaware that her brother-in-law only has eyes for her daughter.

In the following interview with Kidman, she discusses her favorite Hitchcock films, working with as meticulous a filmmaker as Park Chan Wook and playing screen icon Grace Kelly in the upcoming Grace of Monaco. For the full interview, hit the jump.

Dial M for Murder is possibly the strangest film in Hitchcock’s body of work. The iconic director was always technically innovative and creative, but something about him jumping on the 1950s 3D craze feels bizarre. The format may have been imposed on him by Warner Bros., who he was under contract with for one more film. By the time it was released in theaters in 1954, the 3D craze had died down and Warner released it largely in 2D. Now, nearly 60 years later, Warner is transporting viewers back into Wendices’ living room and we all have front row seats to the murder. See how the Warner Bros Blu-ray 3D of Dial M for Murder fares after the jump.

Paramount is good about releasing classics on Blu-ray from time to time, and their latest batch offers one of the greatest films of all time, and an entertaining minor work by a master director. Chinatown is Roman Polanski’s masterpiece. It stars Jack Nicholson as a private dick assigned to find out about an affair that uncovers statewide corruption in California. Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief offers Cary Grant and Grace Kelly on the Riviera in beautiful Vista-vision. Both are definitely worth checking out on Blu-ray (if not purchased immediately) and our reviews of both follow after the jump.

A star has finally been chosen to lead the Grace Kelly biopic Grace of Monaco.  Variety reports that Nicole Kidman beat out a number of top actresses to take on the coveted role of the gorgeous starlet.  La Vie en Rose director Olivier Dahan is onboard to helm Grace of Monaco, and the pic will take place between December 1961 and November 1962, when Kelly maneuvered behind the scenes as Princess of Monaco to save her nation from political turmoil.  For those unaware, Kelly only starred in a handful of films before she retired from acting to serve as Monaco’s monarch alongside Prince Rainier III, but she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in The Country Girl and had a memorable turn in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window.  Also, she was incredibly beautiful.  Hit the jump for more.

When I was at the Toronto Film Festival, TIFF Bell Lightbox had a promo in front of every movie promoting their upcoming Grace Kelly exhibit, “Grace Kelly: From Movie Star to Princess”.  Now it’s their festival and they’re allowed to promote whatever future event they want, but by the end of the festival, I loathed Grace Kelly.  Watching a promo 37 times in nine days will do that.  Hopefully, my enmity towards Kelly will have faded by the time Grace of Monaco hits theaters.  La vie en rose director Arash Amel is set to helm the film, which will focus on Grace’s life in 1962 when she became instrumental in mediating the conflict between French leader Charles De Gaulle and her husband, Monaco’s Prince Rainier III.

Hit the jump for more on the project.

A Grace Kelly film is on the way. Europacorp co-founder Pierre-Ange Le Progam has acquired the spec script Grace Monaco by Arash Amel and plans to develop it into a feature film. THR reports that the story pits Kelly’s personal life against the backdrop of the politics at the time, like a certain other successful biopic (The King’s Speech, ahem). Kelly rose to prominence as an actress in 1952 when she starred opposite Gary Cooper in High Noon. The beauty went on to star in a string of films for Alfred Hitchcock (Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief) and in 1954 won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in The Country Girl. Hit the jump for more, including what portion of her life the film will focus on.