Duelling Hitchcocks

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Between the two Duelling Hitchcock films, HE's money is on the Ryan Murphy/Anthony Hopkins version rather than Number 13, the comedy-thriller about young Alfred (Dan Fogler) finding his style as a British-based filmmaker in the 1920s. I've read an early draft of the Murphy-Hopkins script, written by John J. McLaughlin and largely about the making of Psycho.

16-month old draft of John McLaughlin's ""Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho," which Ryan Murphy will direct with Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock.

The script also weaves in -- a bit awkwardly, truth be told -- a parallel story about the history of Ed Gein, the Wisconsin mass murderer who was the model for Robert Bloch's "Norman Bates" character. I could be reacting too conservatively here. Using the Gein story alongside the Hitchcock saga certainly lifts it out of the usual making-of-a-masterpiece mode a la RKO 281.

The late '50s period trappings of Ryan-Hopkins film will be easy enough to recapture -- the suits, cars, old phones, etc. I just hope that Murphy, a former journalist like myself, will really give it hell as far as putting the audience into the mood and emotions and sub-currents of America in 1959 and '60. The ground-level enticement in the watching of any period film is that you might have a chance to really go someplace else for a couple of hours. To actually dive into and become part of a past life. Bennett Miller's Capote felt like a real time-machine piece; ditto Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 24, 2007 at 10:01 AM

comment #1

frankbooth says ...

Next year, Hopkins is playing Lincoln, Cary Grant, Wilt Chamberlain and Susan B. Anthony. Then he's retiring, having finally depicted everyone who ever lived.

Posted by frankbooth at October 24, 2007 10:31 AM

comment #2

BurmaShave says ...

I thought he was brilliant in Oliver Stone's movie about Ed Sullivan.

Posted by BurmaShave at October 24, 2007 10:40 AM

comment #3

JD says ...

Does Ryan Murphy have some kind of incredible secret skill that I don't know about? How does he keep convincing all these big time actors to make films with him? Did ANYBODY like Running With Scissors?

Posted by JD at October 24, 2007 10:45 AM

comment #4

frankbooth says ...

Burma, you bastard, I'm glad I wasn't sipping coffee when I read that.

Posted by frankbooth at October 24, 2007 10:52 AM

comment #5

Jeff says ...

Murphy gets great guest stars for Nip Tuck too and that show hasn't been good since season 2....Although I have to admit I will be watching the premiere next week to see the docs move to LA

Posted by Jeff at October 24, 2007 11:02 AM

comment #6

DavidF says ...

That comedy one sounds Shakespeare in Love-ish.
Maybe, since he's already putting on the weight, Gosling can play Hitchcock. Gwyneth Paltrow can play a blonde chick who won't go out with him and Vince Vaughan can play the slightly off-kilter hotel manager who gives Alfy an idea....

Posted by DavidF at October 24, 2007 11:10 AM

comment #7

btwnproductions says ...

AMC's MAD MEN, which just ended its first season, gives you that "moods and emotions and sub-currents" immersion circa 1960 one episode at a time.

Posted by btwnproductions at October 24, 2007 11:34 AM

comment #8

scooterzz says ...

with 'nip/tuck' and 'popular', murphy's turned in some pretty wonderful tv...and actors love to work with him....but isn't this hitchcock thing a looooooong way down the line?...he's working on his transexual tv series and 'dirty tricks' first (at least, from what i'm told)......

Posted by scooterzz at October 24, 2007 11:44 AM

comment #9

vansmith says ...

burma that was funny, very funny...but do these guys ever ask themselves 'who is going to pay to see this movie?' and if so will there be enough of them so we can make a profit?'

Posted by vansmith at October 24, 2007 11:45 AM

comment #10

berg says ...

YES I liked Running With Scissors, I saw it twice in the theater ... so? RWS was hilarious ... Hitchcock came to America to direct a movie based on the Titanic that didnt get made ... a scene about the Titanic being made into a movie is also in the book What Makes Sammy Run? ...

Posted by berg at October 24, 2007 11:58 AM

comment #11

MilkMan says ...

Very funny, Burma. Hopkins' perf in Nixon was atrocious, but then again, so was the entire movie, so I don't hold it against him.

Running with Scissors is garbage, more of an exercise in how many 70's pop hits can be crammed into a single movie. Ryan Murphy is a shitty director and I would never pay money to see anything he directed. I'll watch Nip/Tuck for free and that's about it. He gets my finger of the day. Fuck you, Ryan Murphy.

Posted by MilkMan at October 24, 2007 12:23 PM

comment #12

Mistress Malevolent says ...

Burma made me drop my cookie in my coffee. BAD Burma!

Posted by Mistress Malevolent at October 24, 2007 12:32 PM

comment #13

actionman says ...

"Hopkins' perf in Nixon was atrocious, but then again, so was the entire movie, so I don't hold it against him."

Were you drunk when you posted this inane comment?

Posted by actionman at October 24, 2007 1:02 PM

comment #14

christian says ...

Nip/Tuck is atrocious enough.

Posted by christian at October 24, 2007 1:23 PM

comment #15

JD says ...

Someone who hated Nixon also hated Running With Scissors? I'm renting Running With Scissors TONIGHT!

Posted by JD at October 24, 2007 1:39 PM

comment #16

actionman says ...

Nip/Tuck is atrociously amazing, if that makes any sense

Posted by actionman at October 24, 2007 1:40 PM

comment #17

actionman says ...

Running With Scissors was horrendously awful.

Posted by actionman at October 24, 2007 1:43 PM

comment #18

Mistress Malevolent says ...

As well as being very bad advice.

Posted by Mistress Malevolent at October 24, 2007 1:47 PM

comment #19

T. Holly says ...

You give myspace a bad name.

Posted by T. Holly at October 24, 2007 2:23 PM

comment #20

Edward says ...

I just got Burma's joke! Or is it quip? I either need more coffee or a good shot of Burbon.

On a totally unrelated note: Here's hoping for a seven game World Series!

Posted by Edward at October 24, 2007 2:30 PM

comment #21

silver says ...

I recall a Robert Bloch interview saying he used only a small fraction of the Ed Gein crimes and deeds in his original "Psycho" novel, because the actual full details were just too unsettling and grotesque for him to use in the late 1950's.
Nowadays of course you can portray a cannibal and win an Oscar

Posted by silver at October 24, 2007 2:32 PM

comment #22

actionman says ...

in which the red sox lose

Posted by actionman at October 24, 2007 2:32 PM

comment #23

christian says ...

Lose what?

Posted by christian at October 24, 2007 2:43 PM

comment #24

Edward says ...

Their sox!

Posted by Edward at October 24, 2007 2:46 PM

comment #25

jeffmcm says ...

'The Adventures of Young Alfred Hitchcock' sounds like an obnoxious and lame idea, plus nobody would want to see it - the Hitchcock that everyone is familiar with is the one from the 50s and 60s who had a TV show. Nobody is going to want to see a movie about a young fat guy working his way up the silent-film ladder - and in England, not Hollywood.

I am, however, a fan of Nixon (the movie and Hopkins' performance, not the guy).

Posted by jeffmcm at October 24, 2007 3:02 PM

comment #26

buckzollo says ...

Competing projects...does it ever work out well, I mean for both. Capote vs. Infamous for example, the first one to market likely cannibalizes the audience for the later regardless of how good. It ain't a meritocracy is all.

Posted by buckzollo at October 24, 2007 3:30 PM

comment #27

Edward says ...

Is also a fan of Nixon. And I'm one of those evil leftists who despised the man. I could make a comment about the current chief executive, but it's too easy.

Posted by Edward at October 24, 2007 3:52 PM

comment #28

JoeJustice says ...

wells: the script you read has been dramatically changed. trust me.

Posted by JoeJustice at October 24, 2007 3:55 PM

comment #29

bmcintire says ...

I'd say the Young Hitchcock feature might make an interesting enough title for HBO. RKO 281 was a nice little gem of a movie, but I don't think it could have made a dime in theaters.

INFAMOUS did poorly because it was a horrible piece of shit (along the lines of BY THE SEA in its arch phoniness) in equal if not greater measure to the fact that it was sloppy seconds to the IN COLD BLOOD trough. And that success/failure cannibalization formula was already proven wrong with DEEP IMPACT/ARMAGEDDON.

Posted by bmcintire at October 24, 2007 4:04 PM

comment #30

PastePotPete says ...

"Number 13, the comedy-thriller about young Alfred (Dan Fogler) finding his style as a British-based filmmaker in the 1920s."

So it's about Hitchcock watching Fritz Lang movies?

Posted by PastePotPete at October 24, 2007 6:06 PM

comment #31

buckzollo says ...

bmcintire: "And that success/failure cannibalization formula was already proven wrong with DEEP IMPACT/ARMAGEDDON."

Athough Volcano and Dante's Peak both have very respectable grosses to date, as do Armageddon and Deep Impact for that matter, I doubt any theory, as if one exists is "proven wrong."
Capote was the better movie by far, and Infamous did blow.

Posted by buckzollo at October 24, 2007 7:02 PM

comment #32