Next month sees the release of Rebecca, a new adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s classic 1938 novel from director Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Free Fire) and starring Armie Hammer (Call Me By Your Name), Lily James (Baby Driver) and Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient).
Of course, this isn’t the first adaptation of du Maurier’s novel; it has been brought to the screen on several times, most notably by director Alfred Hitchcock with his Oscar-winning 1940 film; however, speaking to Empire, Wheatley has stressed this his Rebecca is not a remake of the Hitchcock classic.
“It’s not, in any sense, a remake of the Hitchcock film,” said Wheatley. “Firmly not. Remaking a film is not that interesting to me, but the original source material is. I watched all the adaptations. It’s important to see what’s gone before, but that’s certainly not the focus. I wanted to make something that had more love in it. It’s part of trying to investigate other parts of being human. Rebecca has dark elements, and it has a psychological, haunting story within it, but it’s also about these two people in love. That was the main thing.”
Rebecca is set to hit Netflix next month, and in the meantime four new images have arrived online featuring Armie Hammer’s Maxim de Winter and Lily James’ second Mrs. de Winter; check them out here:
Lily James and Armie Hammer in Ben Wheatley’s ‘Rebecca’ pic.twitter.com/DGlewA5LAF
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) September 3, 2020
After a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo with handsome widower Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), a newly married young woman (Lily James) arrives at Manderley, her new husband’s imposing family estate on a windswept English coast. Naive and inexperienced, she begins to settle into the trappings of her new life, but finds herself battling the shadow of Maxim’s first wife, the elegant and urbane Rebecca, whose haunting legacy is kept alive by Manderley’s sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas).
Rebecca arrives on Netflix on October 21st.
Photo Credits: Netflix
