Paramount Pictures has preemptively acquired a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1958's classic psychological thriller as a possible starring vehicle for the 'Iron Man' actor.
- March 24, 2023
AceShowbiz - Robert Downey Jr. is likely to get "Vertigo". The Oscar-nominated actor is reportedly in talks to star in a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1958's classic psychological thriller which is being set up at Paramount Pictures.
According to Deadline which first reported the news, the studio has preemptively acquired the reboot project as the 57-year-old actor's starring vehicle. He eyes the lead role of John "Scottie" Ferguson, originally played by James Stewart.
The script will be written by "See" and "Peaky Blinders" creator Steven Knight, who has just been tapped to write a "Star Wars" film, replacing Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson after the duo bowed out of the so-called secret sci-fi movie.
RDJ will also produce the remake with his wife Susan Downey through their Team Downey production company, along with John Davis and John Fox via Davis Entertainment. No director is attached to the movie just yet.
Paramount was the home for the original film and the Hitchcock Estate reportedly favored the studio as the landing spot for the new iteration.
The original film follows Scottie, a former police detective who is forced to retire after a line of duty trauma that leaves him with fear of heights and vertigo. After his retirement, he's hired by an acquaintance to tail his wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak), whom he feels is behaving erratically.
It is the first film to use the dolly zoom, an in-camera effect that distorts perspective to create disorientation, to convey Scottie's acrophobia. "Vertigo" received mixed reviews upon its initial release, but it is now cited as a classic Hitchcock film and one of his defining works.
As for RDJ, he has kept a low profile as an actor since the release of 2019's "Avengers: Endgame". He starred in 2020's "Dolittle", which was panned by critics and flopped at box office. He also appeared in 2022's Netflix documentary "Sr." focusing on his father Robert Downey. He will next be seen in Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer", a biopic about theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer a.k.a. the "father of the atomic bomb."
