It’s been over a year since we last heard any news of Ben Wheatley‘s upcoming remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic “Rebecca.” Now we don’t only have a release date for the Netflix film, but our first look at Armie Hammer and Lily James as the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter and his new wife.
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The new photos come from Daily Mail, who also reports the October 21 release date for the new “Rebecca.” The film is the latest adaptation of the 1938 murder mystery novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, which follows a newly married young woman who finds herself haunted by the shadow of her aristocrat husband’s now-dead first wife.
Speaking with Daily Mail, Lily James referred to Wheatley’s take on the story as “sometimes trippy and psychedelic,” and she stressed that Wheatley and screenwriter Jane Goldman based this new take on the original novel instead of Hitchcock’s 1940 classic. “We’re doing an adaptation for today, with the idea that women aren’t necessarily the weaker sex,” James said.
Late last year, James said she “kept having panic attacks” while filming the film, noting that the character is “really bullied and gas lighted, she lives in a difficult headspace.”
Wheatley remains an interesting choice to direct this new adaptation. The filmmaker has certainly proven to be a more than adept horror director, and “Kill List” is one of the best folk horror movies of the 2010s. It should interesting to see what he does with a twisted tale like “Rebecca.”
“Rebecca” premieres on Netflix on October 21.
