What’s that old adage? You wait forever for one Hitchcock biopic and then two come at once? Or was it something to do with busses? Can never remember.

Just days after the BBC announced THE GIRL starring Toby Jones and Sienna Miller (read all the details here), comes ALFRED HITCHCOCK AND THE MAKING OF PSYCHO from Fox Searchlight.

Despite the rather unimaginative title, Fox’s project seems to have the edge out of the two in terms of talent, with Anthony Hopkins portraying the legendary filmmaker and Helen Mirren close to signing as his wife Alma Reville. The project will be helmed by Sasha Gervasi, director of the wonderful documentary ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL, and marks his feature film debut.

Like THE GIRL, both are based on published biographies, in this case Stephen Rebello’s book of the same name, detailing the many problems Hitchcock would face in his endeavour to get PSYCHO made.

The fact that we all know it turned out quite well in the end is a challenge BLACK SWAN’s John McLaughlin must have faced when penning the adaptation. But considering the caliber of material that usually attracts Oscar-botherers Mirren and Hopkins, something tells us McLaughlin pulled off something special here.

Someone’s still got to change that title though.

Shooting is scheduled to begin in April. The smart money would be on a January 2013 release. Just in time for Awards season.

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