Sometimes the making of a movie is more interesting story than the movie itself and it looks like ‘Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho’ may fall in that category. The casting has been pretty impressive so far and it looks like the addition of Kurtwood Smith and Wallace Langham just adds to that.
Many know Smith as Topher Grace’s dad in the series ‘That 70’s Show’ but he has also made appearances in ’24’, ‘Neighbors From Hell’, ‘Chaos’ and provided the voice of Shyir Rev in ‘Green Lantern: The Animated Series.’ Smith will play Geoffrey Shurlock, the administrator of the Motion Picture Production Code, the precursor to what is now known as the MPAA. Since the movie itself is about the struggle Alfred Hitchcock had making the movie and getting it shown, you can imagine there will be some conflict with this character.
Langham has been a series regular on the popular CBS series ‘CSI’ and has closed a deal to continue his role for another two seasons. He’s also worked on the movie ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ and ‘The Social Network.’ Langham will play Saul Bass, the man who designed the main titles and handled the storyboards for ‘Psycho’ and many of Hitchcock’s other films. He, along with Shurlock, knocked heads with Hitchcock during the production of ‘Psycho.’
‘Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho’ follows the director’s journey of the obstacles and struggles he encountered while making the iconic film ‘Psycho.’ Sir Anthony Hopkins will be playing the headstrong genius director while Helen Mirren will play his wife, his sounding board, advisor and collaborator behind many of his movies. Langham and Smith will be joining Scarlett Johannson (‘The Avengers’) as Vivien Leigh, James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins (can you already picture the shower scene?), Jessica Biel (‘Total Recall’) as Vera Miles (the actress who played Lila in the original movie), Toni Collette (‘Little Miss Sunshine’, ‘The United States of Tara’) who will play Peggy Robertson (Hitchcock’s longtime assistant), Daniel Huston (‘Wrath of the Titans’) as Whitfield Cook, Michael Stuhlbarg as the famous Lew Wasserman and Michael Wincott who will play the serial killer Ed Gein, the man who the movie was based upon.
According to IMDB, production on the film has already started so it looks like we’ll be seeing a release sometime in 2013. Hitchcock defined horror with this film that at the time pushed the boundaries in filmmaking. The use of chocolate syrup to portray the blood going down in the drain in the shower scene was just a small example of how he has still able to visually give the sense of horror without relying on gore on a limited budget. With a stellar cast as this one has and the story itself, ‘Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho’ may actually be an entertaining watch.
