The original 'Karate Kid' Ralph Macchio has joined 'Alfred Hitchcock And The Making of Psycho', the upcoming biopic of one of the world's most beloved filmmakers. Deadline says production begins next month. Set in 1960, the movie finds Hitchcock at a troubling crossroads in his career having lost some of his audience with Vertigo (amazing to think that now) and the struggle he had to convince a studio to finance and distribute his low-rent horror/thriller, for which nobody believed audiences would turn up for such a violent, psychological tale. Paramount had so little faith in the project that they gave Hitch a paltry budget and just let him get on with it without supervision but this would prove to be the best thing that could have happened to cinema. Under pressure, Hitchcock crafted an absolute masterpiece using the limited resources he had at his disposable to the hilt, finding creative and unique storytelling ways to hide the cracks and build his own sets and collaborate with his own crew from his tv show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Anthony Hopkins has the lead role of Hitchcock and Macchio will take on the part of Joe Stefano, the young screenwriter who adapted Robert Bloch's novel Psycho for Hitch, winning the approval of the 'Master of Suspense' when the first draft from James Cavanagh was turned down by the helmer. With only his second film, Macchio had wrote a film that would change the direction of horror films forever and creating one of the most famous films of all time. Helen Mirren will play Hitch's wife Alma Reville with Scarlett Johansson (Janet Leigh), James DArcy (Anthony Perkins) and Jessica Biel (Vera Miles) as the stars from Psycho. Toni Collette plays the director's assistant Peggy Robertson, Danny Huston is Alma's friend Whitfield Cook and Michael Stuhlbarg is legendary agent and Hollywood figure Lew Wasserman. Wallace Langham is legendary designer Saul Bass! What a cast! The film will mostly tackle the strain the production of Psycho had on Hitchs marriage to his wife and regular collaborator Alma Reville. The tale is chronicled in many books but this film will focus most heavily on Stephen Rebellos, which lends the film its title. Although set mostly during the making of Psycho, a previous draft also chronicled the real life crimes that inspired Robert Blochs novel and also briefly Hitchs later career but I wonder if they have made that subplot minimal to focus on Hitch. Anvil! The Story of Anvil director Sacha Gervasi helms based on John McLaughlins script (he co-wrote Black Swan). If the film wants to be classified for inclusion to next years Oscars then it will need to be released in the US before 2012 is out and we have to believe that is the idea.