The cast of Alfred Hitchcock And The Making Of Psycho seems to improve daily. The line-up already includes Anthony Hopkins as Hitch, Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville, Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh and James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins but now Jessica Biel has hopped on board to play Vera Miles.
Miles was a blonde bombshell who at one point signed a five-year contract with Hitchcock and appeared in the pilot of Alfred Hitchcock Presents as well as The Wrong Man in 1956. She was down to star in Vertigo in 1958 but her pregnancy meant that the role went to Kim Novak instead. She appeared again in Psycho as the sister of Janet Leigh’s character.
It’ll be directed by Sacha Jervasi from a script by John McLaughlin (Black Swan) adapted from the book by Stephen Rebello. While the meat of the plot will explore the struggles that Hitchcock faced as he tried to get financing for the seminal film – something that was rather tricky as the genre wasn’t considered serious film-making material back then – there’ll be material for Biel to get to grips with as her professional relationship with Hitch soured.
Shooting starts next month.
