Although it’d be tough for anyone to remake any of Hitchcock’s most famous film – both because of fan outcry and because they’re so idiosyncratic (as Gus Van Sant discovered with Psycho) – the master director also made quite a few fairly standard thrillers that would be decent fodder for a do-over.
A new rumour suggest that Will Smith is thinking of doing just that, with Latino Review reporting that he’s set his sights on Suspicion as a new starring and producing vehicle. Hitch’s 1941 movie, starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine, is about a young English woman who marries a playboy after he sweeps her off her feet, only to discover that he isn’t as rich as he pretends to be and may be a murderer – and she might be his next victim.
Although the book the film is based on and the movie differ as to how bad a guy Cary Grant’s character is, it’d certainly be an interesting role for Smith, calling on him to be far more duplicitous than in most of his roles (even in Hancock, he was only a sort of faux-antihero). There’s certainly plenty of room for a remake, although I think it’s safe to say that that any new version will be nothing like the Hitchcock version.