Robert Downey Jr has shared his justification for remaking the Alfred Hitchcock classic and it’s not quite what we expected.
Robert Downey Jr has been pretty candid on the press circuit and it’s been fun to watch. Whether declaring Oppenheimer as the best film he’s ever been in or talking openly about the failings of Doolittle, the actor has been pretty forthright about things and we’re enjoying it.
The New York Times even managed to get a few thoughts from the actor about the upcoming Vertigo remake that he is producing and starring in. The script is being written by Steven Knight and Downey is set to play the part of the retired policeman, Scottie, who was portrayed by James Stewart in Hitchcock’s 1958 original.
The decision to remake Vertigo is a pretty bold one and therefore, (we’d argue) the justification has to be pretty thorough. The film was ranked by the prestigious Sight and Sound poll as the greatest film ever made for a good long while, not to mention that some of its subject matter could be contentious these days. Oh, and there’s the looming spectre of Gus Van Sant’s shot-for-shot Psycho remake from the late 90s which people are still scratching their heads about today, wondering what the point of it all was.
Downey (pictured above on the set of the Iron Man 3 production) has offered some thoughts into the remake process, saying, “we are certainly looking into it. You know why? God bless. I’ll tell you why. I have been rock climbing before and gotten stuck in that panic freeze, and if not for the sheer embarrassment, I would have asked to have been hoisted off that rock. I lost my confidence in my positioning, the drop was too far, and my body reacted. It wasn’t fight-or-flight; it was freeze-and-about-to-faint. I’ll never forget it, and it made me think there are cinematic devices that have yet to be fully utilised that I think would provide an experience in trying to say, ‘What does it feel like to be psychologically silly with fear over something that should be manageable?’ That might be entertaining.”
The line about ‘cinematic devices that have yet to be fully utilised’ is interesting and at least allays the fears that he might be planning a shot-for-shot remake in the style of Van Sant. However, Downey’s focus is very much on the psychological exploration of the film’s lead character (which makes sense we suppose) but there still doesn’t seem to be any consideration of why Vertigo needs to be the framework for this psychological exploration, not publicly at least. Could an original story not explore these ideas?
Still, the talent involved thus far has us intrigued and we are keen to see who ends up taking the director’s chair for the project. We’ll let you know as we hear more on the project as we hear it too.
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