In an unexpected twist fit for an Alfred Hitchcock film, it seems as if one of the legendary director's most famous feature films is in line for a modern reboot, and one of the biggest names in cinema is eyeing up the lead role. Deadline reports that Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to a remake of the Hitchcock-directed thriller from 1958, Vertigo, and that Robert Downey Jr. is keen to take on the role first played by James Stewart in the original film. Paramount was the studio where the 1958 version was made, and as such, the Hitchcock Estate made the studio their preferred choice for bringing the remake to life, with the original film having been adapted by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor from the Boileau-Narcejac novel D’entre les morts (From Among the Dead).
The script for the movie will be written by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, See), who is seeing his career move on by leaps and bounds, just a day after it was announced he had signed on to write a new Star Wars film for Disney and Lucasfilm. Downey is now best known for his work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, becoming a pop culture icon due to his portrayal of Tony Stark/Iron Man. He is also a two-time Academy Award-nominated actor following his work on Chaplin and Tropic Thunder.
The original film followed a former police detective who was forced into retirement after a trauma suffered in the line of duty which left him with a crippling fear of heights and a case of vertigo. After his retirement, he is hired by a friend to tail the man's wife, due to her erratic behaviour causing concern. The film was the first to use the dolly zoom, an in-camera device that distorts perspective to create disorientation and pull audiences into the cop’s acrophobia condition. The film will be produced by Downey's production company, Team Downey, which currently has Perry Mason showing on HBO, while Downey himself is currently appearing in The Sympathizer for A24 and HBO.
Upon release, Vertigo garnered mixed reviews for what was considered its overly long length due to the simplicity of the plot, and containing too much extraneous detail. However, modern opinion of the film has seen it subsequently reconsidered as a classic, and is now deemed as one of the greatest films of all time. The American Film Institute ranked it at #9 in its more recent edition of the top 10 films of all time, when it published the list in 2007.