Cinemystery: Dreamworks Planning Remake of Rebecca

Dreamworks is developing a remake of the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Rebecca, itself based on the novel of romantic suspense by Daphne du Maurier. Nikolaj Arcel is set to direct an adapted screenplay, which is being drafted by Steven Knight.

Rebecca (published in 1938) opens with the line, "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten — a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife — the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.

Hitchcock's film came out in 1940 and starred Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as his young wife. It went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture in 1941, in addition to an Oscar for Best Cinematography. If this remake is produced, the film would likely follow Arcel's next project, an adaptation of Don Winslow's The Power of the Dog. [Deadline]