A few days after it was announced that DreamWorks was looking at a new adaptation of “Rebecca”, Paramount Pictures is now looking for a new take on another Hitchcock classic – the 1941 romantic psychological thriller “Suspicion” says Variety.
The original revolved around a dowdy woman (Joan Fontaine) who marries a handsome and charming man (Cary Grant) despite her wealthy father’s disapproval. Soon after their honeymoon, she begins to discover he has proven irresponsible with his investments and has been lying to him.
When the man’s good-natured friend and business partner suspiciously dies in Paris, she begins to fear that her husband is plotting to kill her for her life insurance.
Hitchcock’s version of “Rebecca” was faithful to the original Daphne du Maurier novel in all but one key aspect. “Suspicion” however, an adaptation of Francis Illes’s 1932 novel “Before the Fact”, sported enough major differences from the source material as to change the entire original intention of the book. The ending of the film was famously in opposition to the original novel’s dark study of murder from an eventual victim’s perspective, a change the studio insisted on to maintain Cary Grant’s “heroic” image.
Veena Sud, showrunner of AMC’s “The Killing”, will pen the screenplay and direct. It’s unknown whether she’ll stick closer to either the original novel or Hitchcock’s film version.
Two years ago came word that Will Smith was in talks to produce and star in the film, that no longer seems to be the case.
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