Well this is a pretty inspired piece of casting. "Anvil! The Story Of Anvil" director Sacha Gervasi continues to build up his movie-about-a-movie pic "Alfred Hitchcock And The Making Of Psycho," and he's already got two great veterans on board with Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren playing Alfred Hitchock and his wife Alma Reville respectively. And now he's found his Janet Leigh.
Scarlett Johansson will be the actress who was famously murdered in the classic film, with Brit thesp James D'Arcy ("W.E.," "Cloud Atlas") also on aboard as Anthony Perkins. Penned by John McLaughlin and Tom Thayer, the film will chronicle the production of the seminal thriller, which Hitchcock pursued despite the odds stacked against him. "Psycho" was a project that Paramount hated. Hitchcock was originally going to direct "No Bail For The Judge" with Audrey Hepburn but had to scrap those plans when the actress became pregnant. So he moved on to "Psycho," and the studio was so negative on the project they gave him a paltry budget and resources, leading the director to back the movie through his own production shingle, build his own sets and utilize crew members from his TV show "Alfred Hitchock Presents."
For Leigh, the picture was easily the highlight of career (she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar) and the shower scene was one that created the biggest myth around the movie. It was shot over a week (it's one of the most masterfully edited and shot sequences in cinema history), and over the years, Leigh denied rumors that Hitchcock got the famous scream by using cold water in the shower, or that her genuine fear was caused by the fact that she didn't know her character was going to get murdered. As Perkins, the picture made him a star and launched his career.
According to Variety, ScarJo's role is said to be awards bait in the vein of Michelle Williams' turn in "My Week With Marilyn." With filming set to begin this April, could we see this before the year is out? Guess we'll have to wait and see how Fox Searchlight decides to play it.