comment #1

Jesse Crall says ...

You're right, but if DiCaprio can play J. Edgar Hoover.... In interviews, Scarlett comes across a bit like a sweet, neurotic Jewish mother. She's got the voice and the body of a seductive babe but her temperment can probably move into more "White Picket Fence" realms. I'd be more concerned about the film following flat bio-pic conventions like My Week With Marilyn.

comment #2

MooType says ...

Jamie Lee Curtis once wrote that it was hard to find a picture of her mother where she wasn't clenching her fists. There was something simmering there that wasn't Mrs. White Picket Fence.

comment #3

Sasha Stone says ...

Charlize.

comment #4

Jesse Crall says ...

Yeah, I could see Charlize. She has more gravitas than Johansson, but if she's playing an actress running up against Hitch, that might not be so desired. What was the Hitchcock/Leigh power dynamic in the book?

comment #5

The Bandsaw Vigilante says ...

The Man Who Wasn't There.

comment #6

Sasha Stone says ...

See, that character would never be a Scarlett Johansson. Also, actresses nowadays are just younger period. Back then, older women and men were still considered sexy because films were actually aimed at adult people, you know, with families and pubic hair and whatnot.

At any rate, it makes no sense that a vibrant young girl like that would steal 40 thou. It works so well in the movie because there is a hint of desperation there. Oh well.

comment #7

Travis Actiontree says ...

Oy. More of that tiresome decade generalization.

Yeah, they liked her because it was the 50's and men all wore grey flannel suits and lived in the suburbs and everyone was mean to black people and the kids all looked like Howdy Doody and it was just like "Pleasantville". Zzzzz.

You do realize that this is the same decade that swooned over Marilyn Monroe AND Audrey Hepburn?

Of course, what with the war in Iraq and everyone being mad about the failure to find WMD's and the success of TV's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" neither of those women would've been popular or considered attractive during the 00's.

comment #8

Rashad says ...

She was 32 when she filmed Psycho. Hardly an "older" woman

comment #9

Edward Havens says ...

Too bad Lindsey Lohan is still in the "hot mess" danger zone for Hollywood. She's has more than just a bit of that hint of desperation.

comment #10

Raising_Kaned says ...

Let me get this straight -- because of one Presidential scandal, an entire decade gets tagged as "the blowjob era"? Then how come I didn't get one?? Hey, don't answer that -- it was rhetorical!

Yeah, this is bad casting -- not only because their looks are diametrically opposed, but because ScarJo (love her as I do) just doesn't have much range as an actress. Charlize is an amazing master thespian and can play pretty much anyone. The fact that this is almost a complete 180 from Mavis Gary, yet she was also cast perfectly in Young Adult tells you just about everything you need to know here.

comment #11

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comment #12

Anthony Thorne says ...

The dynamic in the book (which was presumably the same in real life) was warm, relaxed and respectful. According to all the various bios, Hitchcock got on swimmingly with Leigh, Perkins and Martin Basalm, was okay with Vera Miles, and either tolerated or ignored John Gavin as his interests were elsewhere. It was quite an enjoyable book but I'm curious as to the premise of the movie - there was some drama between Hitchcock and the censors, but the shoot was reportedly a happy one. If this movie gets made I hope the 'story' encompasses the release, and success, of the movie, as Hitch's William Castle-style admonitions to audiences were some of his most masterful, and the reaction to the film was one-of-a-kind. It would never have happened (as he hadn't released a big studio production since the much tampered with LINK, and also because he's no longer with us) but one perfect director amongst many for this would have been Richard Franklin - who I knew for a year or two in Melbourne before he passed away - as he was PSYCHO obsessed, had personally met and interviewed Hitch, had worked with Perkins and Miles on the sequel, and could have come up with his own directorial tricks in nifty homage.

comment #13

MAGGA says ...

The scene I'm looking forward to is when Leigh is supposed to wear contact lenses in order for her eyes to look dead after the shower murder, but she is allergic to them and has to wear glasses

comment #14

Floyd Thursby says ...

Hopkins and Mirren look nothing like Mr. and Mrs. H.

comment #15

Super Soul says ...

In fairness to Scarlett, I hear the plot explains a lot of this by incorporating a flux capacitor.

Actor who probably could have benefited most from a time machine: Timothy Carey.

comment #16

JLC says ...

There's some interesting stuff about the making of Psycho, but I think most of it was technical, like Hitch's use of his TV crew, the rumors about Saul Bass and Perkins not being available for the shower scene.

I would think the more interesting film could be made about Hitch's alleged psychological warfare on Tippi Hedren, like when he lied to her about the use of real birds in the climax of that film.

comment #17

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

"the rumors about Saul Bass and Perkins"

Took me a minute not to read it that way.

Johansson looks so much like Gloria Grahame, though. Maybe someday she can be in a movie about Fritz Lang and the making of The Big Heat.

http://allwomenarebad.blogspot.com/2011/10/gloria-grahame.html

comment #18

JLC says ...

@Mgmax, yeah, probably should have put a comma in there.

comment #19

Ray says ...

"See, that character would never be a Scarlett Johansson. Also, actresses nowadays are just younger period. Back then, older women and men were still considered sexy because films were actually aimed at adult people, you know, with families and pubic hair and whatnot."

As called out earlier, there really aren't as many age differences as thought. The studio system still shoveled fresh meat as much as the system does today.

The "older" actresses of yesterday were just as often the same age as the "younger" actresses of today- they just LOOKED older because LET'S FACE IT people looked like shit back in the day. Smoking, drinking, sunburn, no gyms, no personal trainers, no Photoshop, NO CALORIES.

Half the "character" in B&W films of the past is contained in that truth: EVERYONE looked physically different than today. Not just the attractive actors and actresses but also the "ugly" character actors and actresses.

It's why period movies are so hard to make and often as unrealistic as the most awful CGI blockbuster: human beings in the Western World are taller and larger* than they were just fifty years ago.

* I'm not talking fat. Actors and actresses aren't fat. But even the "thin" ones don't look like the beanpoles, midgets and waifs that walked the Earth in the glory days of Hollywood.

comment #20

Sasha Stone says ...

"She was 32 when she filmed Psycho. Hardly an "older" woman"

That's true. She looks older for some reason. I'd have pegged her at 40. Weird. But pretty Scarlett looks just 25. Much much younger. I'd cast her as Kim Novak in Vertigo in a heartbeat. She'd also be a cute Hitchcock archetype with glasses.

comment #21

Sasha Stone says ...

"The "older" actresses of yesterday were just as often the same age as the "younger" actresses of today- they just LOOKED older because LET'S FACE IT people looked like shit back in the day. Smoking, drinking, sunburn, no gyms, no personal trainers, no Photoshop, NO CALORIES."

Maybe so. But youth wasn't a fetish like it is now. It was less likely a woman would cling to her youth and try to pass for being in her 20s like they do now. Sure, they did but not to extreme degree they do now. Hell, girls in their 30s now get plastic surgery!

comment #22

JLC says ...

It's always a shock to consider that Gloria Swanson was 50 when she played the "waxwork" Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. That's just a hair over two years older than Sandra Bullock is now.

Bette Davis was 41 when she played the "washed up" Margo Channing in All About Eve. That's 4 years YOUNGER than Julia Roberts will be this year.

comment #23

Robert Cashill says ...

What the world needs, another movie in the vein of the awful MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, with actors ill-suited to the task playing dress up.

comment #24

Robert Cashill says ...

In any case 32, unmarried, and having an affair was indeed desperate in 1960.

comment #25

Alboone says ...

Charlize is the one.

The question isn't does ScarJo look like Leigh, but does she have the range to pull it off. Hate to admit it but the simple answer is no. Fincher said it best when he was casting for Dragon Tatoo "when you see on her screen you can't wait for her to take her bra off." On the outset it sounds sexist but there's a fundamental truth to that opinion. Whenever I watch her in anything its extremely hard for me to listen to what she's saying or doing without daydreaming of myself having hot sloppy sex with her in my mind.

comment #26

corey3rd says ...

Just remember that Bea Arthur wasn't as old as Madonna is now when she started making Maude.

comment #27

Krillian says ...

Janet Leigh at 32 looks more like Ashley Judd at 32.

comment #28

lovethefuture says ...

Scarlett gets a pass on her limited range because she's stunning on film. I loved her in LOST IN TRANSLATION but she's hasn't been especially good in anything since IMO. Even during MATCH POINT she isn't very convincing when she has to play up the fact that she's losing it. Another weak moment was when she's in the plane going back to Barcelona in VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA and she's trying to apologize for getting sick beforehand. It's just bad. I mean, I loved watching her delight in Javier's attempt to woo her and her friend, but then a scene comes along and she doesn't pull it off.

She'll have plenty of attempts to prove me wrong moving forward, but when you look past that great face you realize there are so many better actresses in the game right now in her age range. Also, her f'ing Sean Penn really turned me off for some reason.

comment #29

chad_pole says ...

I would've also cast Andrew Garfield as Perkins... he has the voice and resemblance.

comment #30

Bob Hightower says ...

This is a very strange post. Janet Leigh was and is one of the hottest female stars of her time. Anyone who can't see that must be wearing blinders.

comment #31

roland1824 says ...

ScarJo is so overrated, across the board. She's hasn't been believable in anything since her early trifecta of Man Who Wasn't There, Ghost World & Lost in Translation.

comment #32

Robert Cashill says ...

Not many of those "better actresses" have a Tony award, or would dare to set foot on a stage. There's more there than her film roles would suggest.

comment #33

Padre la Tiempo says ...

ScarJo is just not a very good actress. No wait, she's actually terrible. I don't have a problem at all with the difference in how they look (different eras, etc), but she's just a block of wood...that gives most guys serious wood. And that's why she's gotten a pass for so long. But "actress" she ain't, never was, and never will be.

comment #34

Floyd Thursby says ...

Other than Woody's films, ScarJo hasn't really been given a chance to display much acting ability. One day she might give a really good performance.

Leigh was likewise limited, yet she managed to be in four great films: Naked Spur, Touch of Evil, Psycho, Manchurian Candidate.

comment #35

Sasha Stone says ...

Well maybe being pretty is enough. I dunno. I agree that she's terrible. She was great early on, like in the Horse Whisperer, and up through Lost in Translation...

comment #36

dangovich says ...

Remember when Gus Van Sant did that shot-by-shot remake of Psycho with Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche?

Me neither.

comment #37

Manitoba says ...

I so agree with Bob Hightower on Janet Leigh being one of the hottest stars of her time. She started in 1947 but was still pretty hot in my eyes in two 1960s performances--as the stranger on a train showing an interest in "The Manchurian Candidate's" Frank Sinatra and as Paul Newman' s ex-wife in "Harper." Leigh even had a lot of the old appeal as late as 1975,playing a husband murderer in a Columbo special called "Forgotten Lady."

comment #38

Eloi Wrath says ...

Does Hopkins seem like a good choice for Hitchcock? I always thought of Hitchcock being a fairly slow sort of chap, not mentally but in movement and speech, etc. Hopkins is a motor-mouth when he gets going. Didn't Timothy Spall play Hitchcock once? That'd sort of make sense.

comment #39

Raising_Kaned says ...

Spall would be pretty great as Hitch, and he's usually pretty dead-on when portraying figureheads or behind-the-scenes guys (see also: Rock Star, King's Speech), but there's really no star power there (only true film buffs know him by name & not face); he's a character actor through-and-through. So you get Hopkins. Anyway, I'm not sure how important the sheer physical resemblance is so long as you can mimic the really important stuff (see Hopkins in Nixon, where he's arguably as good as he's EVER been).

"I loved watching her delight in Javier's attempt to woo her and her friend, but then a scene comes along and she doesn't pull it off."

Hmmm. As I recall, there is one scene is VCB where she really nails it (perhaps unsurprisingly, it's all about sex). It's the scene where it's just Javier and her talking on the bed -- I think they're both drinking together -- and she basically reveals (in a very erotically gung-ho fashion) that she'll sleep with him, "but you have to seduce me first." Great "Woody" line (in more way than one...hey-ohhhh!), but also an absolutely perfect delivery. I'll try to find it on YT here in a bit, because it's really quite striking how strong of an actress she is when it comes to portraying raw frankness about sexuality. I'm not sure that's a quality that is as easily "faked" as some others, which makes her a bit of a secret cinematic weapon (if deployed correctly).

She's actually a bit like Lohan in that respect.

comment #40

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

Wasn't Jim Broadbent going to play him when this was an HBO movie? He gets the droll side.

comment #41

bluefugue says ...

>Didn't Timothy Spall play Hitchcock once? That'd sort of make sense.

I was all about to write how Hopkins is a versatile enough actor to pull it off, but now I can't imagine anyone else playing the part but Spall. Or maybe that guy from The History Boys.

Damn.

comment #42

Cadavra says ...

Winning a Tony is not the same thing as earning a Tony. There was near universal outrage at Johansson's victory--a clear case of the voters falling for a movie star--and Hunter Foster, for one, has called for greater oversight in the future.

comment #43

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