A remake of Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock's classic psychological thriller, is in the works at Paramount, Deadline reports.
Robert Downey Jr. is set to play the lead role of John "Scottie" Ferguson, the retired police detective with a fear of heights played by James Stewart in the 1958 original, while Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is penning the script. This is a big week for Knight, as it was only just announced that he would be taking over from Damon Lindelof as the writer of a new Star Wars movie.
Hitchcock's movie follows Scottie as he's hired as a private investigator by an acquaintance to follow his wife (played by Kim Novak), who is behaving strangely. Scottie has previously retired from the police force after an incident in the line of duty caused him to develop acrophobia and vertigo. It was based on the 1954 French novel D'entre les morts, which translates to 'From Among the Dead,' by Boileau-Narcejac. Despite receiving mixed reviews upon release, the movie is now thought to be one of the best of all time, replacing Citizen Kane as the number one movie in Sight & Sound's 2012 Greatest Films of All Time poll and coming in second in the publication's 2022 poll.
This, along with his upcoming role in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and Park Chan-wook's HBO series The Sympathizer, will be Downey Jr.'s first major acting role since 2020's Dolittle and 2019's Avengers: Endgame. Over the past few years, he's instead turned his attention to producing instead, getting involved behind the camera on shows like HBO's Perry Mason and Netflix's Sweet Tooth.
While we wait for more news on the Vertigo remake, check out our guide to the most exciting movie release dates coming our way in 2023 and beyond.
