With Its Rebecca Adaptation, Netflix Will Try to Remake a Classic
Looks like Hollywood is taking us back to Manderley once more, as Netflix begins work on a new adapt..
Looks like Hollywood is taking us back to Manderley once more, as Netflix begins work on a new adaptation of Daphne du Mauriers classic gothic thriller Rebecca.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Armie Hammer and Lily James—the latter of whom recently starred in Netflixs The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as well as Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again—have signed on with Netflix to make a new adaptation of the 1938 novel, which Alfred Hitchcock first adapted in 1940 with stars Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. That film went on to win best picture at the 13th Academy Awards. The tale is a classic about a woman known only as Mrs. de Winter (now played by James) who arrives at her new husbands sprawling estate to find out that his late wife, Rebecca, whom everyone adored, still haunts it—figuratively and, perhaps, literally.
Ben Wheatley, who directed Hammer in Free Fire two years ago, will helm, T.H.R. reports, with Kingsman scribe Jane Goldman on board to write the screenplay.
Given the success of Netflixs Halloween fare, including The Haunting of Hill House and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, it seems logical that the streamer would add more dark content to its library. But anytime youre adapting a property Hitchcock already had his hands on, the stakes are high. And the success or failure of this project could hinge on a factor that has apparently not yet been decided: the performer cast to play the icy housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, who despises and torments Mrs. de Winter. (Judith Anderson played the part in Hitchcocks version.) The options are plentiful—a practiced character actress with scenery-chewing experience, someone in the vein of Patricia Clarkson or Tilda Swinton or even __Jennifer Jason Leigh,__ who stars in Netflixs Atypical, and helped Vanity Fair recreate Rebecca in our 2008 Hollywood Issue, comes to mind—but regardless, the dynamic between Mrs. Danvers and the narrator will be key.
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Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
