I won’t even bother with the “say it ain’t so” groaning that has now become obligatory when Hollywood decides to reboot a coveted film, let alone the film of a great auteur like Alfred Hitchcock. In any case, like it or not, we’ll be graced with a remake of Hitch’s 1955 heist caper To Catch A Thief. The film itself has never been lauded as one of the director’s masterworks (just a bit of glitz and glam without much else), but being an apologist for almost all of the man’s films, two wonderful performances from Cary Grant and Grace Kelly are enough to make me think that they don’t need replacing, recreating, rebooting or any other “re-” except re-watching.
Paramount Pictures, the studio responsible for the original (and a number of Hitchcock’s other greats), seems to think otherwise, as they have acquired a script from Josh Stolberg (Piranha: 3D, Sorority Row) that is more “modern and ‘gadgety'” to be produced by Neal Moritz (The Fast and the Furious franchise, among other gems). According to Stolberg, the studio is currently in the midst of casting the remake, which is now set in Santarini. The writer also makes mention of “action sequences,” which comes as no real surprise given that the original had few if any, and would be one key factor in an update [Latino Review].
Again, I can’t really feel shocked or even disappointed at the news, but the names attached to the project thus far certainly don’t do much to quell my disinterest. With no real word on a cast or director (y’know, minor details), it seems a bit too soon to have any overwhelmingly positive or negative reaction towards the project as it stands. As always, we’ll have more for you to ponder as this develops.
What do you think of a remake? Who should replace Hitchcock, Grant and Kelly?