DB7

Hollywood to remake early Hitchcock thriller


Staff and agencies
Wednesday June 27, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

After Psycho and The Birds, Hollywood is planning another remake of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. This time it's the turn of The Lodger, a 1927 silent film the British director made in London in the early stages of his career. The Lodger tells the story of a mysterious man who rents a room at the Bloomsbury house of the Bunting family at a time when the capital is terrified by a serial killer, known as The Avenger, who murders only blonde women. The landlords quickly suspect their puzzling resident might be the murderer.

The remake will be set in modern-day Los Angeles and revolve around a copycat killer, according to Variety. The man in charge will be the relatively unknown David Ondaatje, who will make his feature-length debut with The Lodger. He will also write and produce the film. Ondaatje is well acquainted with the work of the celebrated British director. His previous film was a short entitled Waiting for Dr MacGuffin, billed as a tribute to Hitchcock - MacGuffin refers to a plot device Hitchcock often used in his movies.

Hitchcock's work remains a popular source for Hollywood remakes. Gus Van Sant memorably re-shot Psycho frame-by-frame in 1998 and received a critical and commercial mauling for his trouble. Earlier this year, the teen-targeted thriller Disturbia, a modern-day homage to 1954's Rear Window, became a box office hit across the pond. And 1963's The Birds is also to be remade, with Naomi Watts possibly reprising the role made famous by Tippi Hedren.

Steve Crook

Justifiably. It was the most pointless exercise ever invented.

I wonder what sort of a hash they'll make of The Lodger.
Yet more proof (if it were needed) of the dearth of original ideas in Hollywood, or that no original ideas are allowed to be made into films.

Steve

DB7

It was on last night on 4, and I couldn't see the point unless Van Sant hoped to pull off the near-impossible and better Hitch's version. Vaughn, aged under 30, is also too young for the role of Bates.

TheLatePeterCook2

Is it a 'proper' remake or just a new adapation (it's been filmed quite a bit) of the book? Of course as the book was about Jack The Ripper and this new 'un's set in modern LA, it would have to be a pretty loose adaptation......

ChristineCB

I can certainly understand why LA's creative juices have been reduced to copies and remakes - they have almost no history of sensationalistic killings, after all, and the idea of Hollywood dreaming up fiction on its own is thus well beyond its capability.



But DISTURBIA making a splash across the pond? I thought "ripple in jello" was being overly generous.

batman

How bad is it? I watched the remake with Christopher Reeve and, sad to say after the effort required of him to actually do the role, it was a stinker.

Bats.

There are 31 excellent quizzes to bamboozle you on the Quiz Page. Just click on the 'Quick Links' icon and scroll down!

Steve Crook

No sensationist killings? What about Richard Ramirez or Chester D. Turner?

And how much experience or history do the people in Hollywoodland have of cattle drives or fighting the Indian wars, or of travelling in space or many other things that they managed to make good movies about in the past?

Disturbia isn't due for release here until September.
That should be just in time for the "straight to video" market

Steve

penfold

Actually, if he makes the novel rather than remakes the film it could be interesting. In the original novel the tale is told from the perspective of the landlady, who likes the quiet gentleman who has just taken rooms.....and continues to bond with him despite mounting evidence, throughout the novel, that he is an escaped religious lunatic and indeed Jack The Ripper himself..... quite a different emphasis to either of the film versions.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

ChristineCB

(Psst... sorry for my failure to use my Sarcasm font on my earlier message about Hollywood's need for copies and remakes since they never had a sensationalistic Manson, Hillside or Night Stalker killer of their own... ha ha)

As for DISTURBIA, it didn't go directly to DVD. But the DVD was released before the Dollar Theatres even had a chance to refuse to show it.

image45

Sarcasm font ~ is that a special feature just for you

"Seya next time!"

ChristineCB

Yes, I wish!! I mean, rattlin' off Richard Ramirez and Chuckie-boy Manson should be enough of 'sensationalistic' killings without bringing up black-lipped torso's chopped in half and deposited in 1940's vacant blocks, eh?

aphra

To my mind the best of all Ripper films, and again taken from Mrs Belloc-Lowndes' book, was John Brahm's THE LODGER with Laird Cregar, photographed by Lucien Ballard. This was the first Ripper film to refer to Jack by name, and Laird ("I take my troubles to the river...") Cregar moves through a shadowy East End, as a tormented creature driven to kill young women because of his brother's death caused by a prostitute. Even more enjoyable than Brahms' HANGOVER SQUARE (also with Cregar) from the Patrick Hamilton novel.

lordtednfs

The best Ripper movie for me was From Hell, even though an American film had plenty of British influence especially from Sir Ian Holm, man was he evil.

Looking forward to watching The Lodger remake. Not many movies over 80 years of age are given the modern treatment, but will it stand up to "The Masters" touch of excellence. Here's hoping.

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