After years of stalling film biopics about the life of 'The Master of Suspense', there is something rather interesting about two competing Hitchcock projects eventually going before cameras at around the same time. We have reported recently about the drama "Alfred Hitchcock And The Making Of Psycho" which will star Anthony Hopkins as the world famous filmmaker, Helen Mirren as his wife Alma and Scarlett Johansson (as Janet Leigh) and James D'Arcy (as Anthony Perkins) during the making of one of Hitch's most popular and best known films when it begins shooting next month. And now comes a first look at a rival BBC project. The Daily Mail have revealed the very first look at Toby Jones and Sienna Miller as Hitchcock and the titular Tippi Hedren respectively in "The Girl", re-creating a famous behind-the-scenes photo of the pair during the making of 1963's The Birds, the film that came directly after Psycho. Imagine this as a sequel to the other production. See it below the first look in full and compare it to the real thing; The 90-minute BBC drama chronicles the filmmaker's obsessive relationship with Hedren during the making of The Birds and Marnie where the young actress got to the big heart of Hitch like none of his other blonde leading lady starlets. As Hedren recalls to the paper, the movie is about Hitch's sexual advances to Hedren which ruined their friendship; "I admired Hitch tremendously for his great talent and still do. Yet, at the same time, I loathed him for his off-set behaviour and the way he came on to me sexually. He was a great director and he destroyed it all by his behaviour when he got me alone." Written by Gwyneth Hughes (Miss Austen Regrets) and directed by Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane, Red Riding: 1974) the movie is expected to hit the small screen this year on the BBC (it doesn't look like this one is getting a theatrical release). Just like this past year's My Week With Marilyn, behind-the-scenes scandals about film stars and the making of movies are always ripe for interesting dramas and this one looks to be no exception. Although the casting isn't as exciting as the other Hitch movie (poor Toby Jones' performance as Truman Capote in 'Infamous' was trumped by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in 'Capote' and I can't help but feel Hopkins will do the same here), I actually think this era of Hitch's personal turmoil is more interesting than his triumphant with Psycho. But we'll see when both movies hit, likely in the next 12 months.
