It’s one thing to remake a 1950s movie for a modern audience that believes anything released before the year 2000 isn’t worth watching, but when is that movie one of the best movies of all time? It seems that this scenario is about to happen as it has been suggested that 1958 Alfred Hitchcock thriller Fear of heights is to get a remake with it Robert Downey Jr. to reprise the role of John “Scottie” Ferguson. The character was originally played by James Stewart, who, as Ferguson, became entangled in a web of murder, deceit and mistaken identity in what has been voted the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound.
According to the report of deadlinethe new film is written by Peaky Blinders and new Star Wars writer Steven Knight, and comes from Paramount Pictures, who have acquired the rights. The report says Paramount was the studio of choice for the remake, over Universal, which has owned the rights to the Hitchcock estate since the 1980s. Having previously distributed the original film as well as many of Hitchcock’s best-known films, including Backwindow, the man who knew too much and the iconic Psychoit makes sense to take the remake home.
Robert Downey Jr. will not only star in the film, but also be part of the production team with his wife Susan Downey for Team Downey. They will be joined by Davis Entertainment’s John Davis and John Fox. There is currently no date set for the film’s release.
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While there are many films from the 1950s that have room for improvement, Fear of heights is not one of them, and that begs the question of what the remake can actually bring to the party, other than becoming another unnecessary remake of a film doomed to be compared to Alfred Hitchcock’s masterfully executed film.
The 1958 film starred Stewart alongside Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Raymond Bailey and Henry Jones, and is not only regarded as one of Hitchcock’s best films, but in 2012 the film made it Burger Kane as Sight & Sound’s greatest film of all time Burger Kane of first place for a rare occasion. With those kinds of references, it’s a brave decision to try and recreate what many consider a perfect movie.
Of course, many Hitchcock movies over the years have gotten the remake treatment, although in many cases you could be forgiven for irradiating many of them from memory – Vince Vaughn’s Psycho everyone? That’s hard to believe Fear of heights could also be different, and although Robert Downey Jr. has plenty of acting experience behind him and is more than capable of pulling off a believable performance as Detective Ferguson, it’s hard to see the new cut of the film as anything other than a pale imitation of the innovative and insurmountable original.