Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho

Infobox Book
name = Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Stephen Rebello
illustrator =
cover_artist = Biz Stone
country =
language = English
series =
subject =
genre =
publisher = St. Martin's Griffin
release_date = December, 1998 (Second Paperback Edition)
english_release_date = February, 1990 (First American Hardback Publication)
media_type = Paperback
pages = 224 (Paperback)
pages = 224 (Hardcover)
isbn = ISBN 0-312-20785-9
preceded_by =
followed_by =

Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho is the title of a non-fiction book by Stephen Rebello.

First published in May, 1990 by Dembner Books and distributed by W. W. Norton and Company, the book details every aspect of the creation of director Alfred Hitchcock's famous thriller Psycho released to theaters in 1960. From Hitchcock's acquisition of the original novel by Robert Bloch to his work with two different screenwriters, casting, filming, editing, scoring, and promotion, the book takes readers into the day-to-day lives of moviemakers who believed they were making a modestly-budgeted, black-and-white shocker that represented a radical departure from the elegant, suspenseful films that had made director Hitchcock's reputation, including Rope, Rear Window, To Catch A Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much and North by Northwest.

The project Hitchcock tackled in part as an experiment to compete with financially-successful, low-budget, youth-oriented horror movies went on to astound many by becoming a cultural watershed, an international box-office success, a film classic, and a forerunner of the violent, disorienting films and real-events of the turbulent 'Sixties.

Stephen Rebello researched the film thoroughly through Hitchcock's personal records and archives and he interviewed virtually every surviving cast and crew member.

Critical Reception

On the publication of the hardcover first edition in 1990, critic Richard Schickel called the book "indispensable and marvelously readable" and "one of the best accounts of the making of an individual movie we've ever had." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in the New York Times declared it a "meticulous history of a single film production."

Psycho star Anthony Perkins called the book, "Meticulously researched and irresistible." Reviewer Gary Johnson called it "one of the best books ever written about the making of a movie."

"Entertainment Weekly," referring to Rebello's revealing how Hitchcock arrived at the sound of the knife stabbing the heroine in the shower, opined "the melon tale alone is worth the price of [the book] ." Another top critic wrote that, unlike other books about films and filmmakers, it "reads more like a gripping novel than detached intellectualism."

Publication History

The book has been subsequently published in hardcover and paperback by Marion Boyars Limited in Great Britain and Australia. It has been published in translated international editions in Japan by Byakuya Shobo, France, Germany, and in Italy by Il Castoro.

The 1994 paperback version is ISBN 0-312-20785-9.

St. Martin's Griffin published a trade paperback edition in 1998.

The book is widely used in university and college courses on film and the work of Hitchcock.

Table of Contents

*Foreword
*The Awful Truth
*The Trouble With Alfred
*The Novel
*The Director
*The Deal
*The Screenplays
*Preproduction
*Shooting
*Postproduction
*Publicity
*The Release
*Afterglow and Aftermath
*Cast and Credits
*The Films of Alfred Hitchcock
*A Note On Sources
*Selected Bibliography
*Index

Motion Picture Adaptation

In 2005, the newspapers "Variety" and "Hollywood Reporter" reported that Arts & Entertainment Network would produce a television film or miniseries based on the book. Later, the motion picture feature rights were optioned by Focus Features.

The dramatic feature motion picture version, now funded by Media Rights Capital and distributed by Universal Pictures, is to begin preproduction in the late fall of 2008 with a projected release date of 2009.

Anthony Hopkins has been widely mentioned to star as Alfred Hitchcock for producers Tom Thayer and Alan Barnette. Stephen Rebello is the Executive Producer. The screenplay is by Stephen Rebello and Ryan Murphy. John McLaughlin wrote an earlier screenplay draft.

External Links

*

*imdb name|id=1067289|name=Stephen Rebello