Yahoo Movies Robert Downey Jr teams up with Peaky Blinders writer on classic remake
Marvel's Robert Downey Jr and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight are teaming up for a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 thriller Vertigo.
According to Deadline, Paramount+ has acquired the rights to the psychological thriller and Downey Jr is "eyeing" up the lead role of John 'Scottie' Ferguson, a retired police detective who has an intense fear of heights and vertigo after a work-related incident.
After his retirement, an old friend hires Scottie to follow his wife, as her erratic behaviour is causing concern.
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Knight has been lined up to write the script, while John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment will produce, alongside Robert and Susan Downey of Team Downey.
Based on Boileau-Narcejac's novel D'entre les morts (From Among the Dead), the script for the original film was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A Taylor, and it saw James Stewart in the lead role.
Paramount also produced the original film, and it's been reported that the Hitchcock Estate wanted the studio to handle the remake, too.
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Downey Jr is currently working on A24's The Sympathizer, which follows a former spy who goes on to become a cultural advisor for Hollywood movies set during the Vietnam War, including the likes of Platoon and Apocalypse Now.
Later this year, the Iron Man actor can also be seen in Christopher Nolan's historical drama Oppenheimer, where he plays Lewis Strauss, the head of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
Knight has also been busy, having just been lined up to write the screenplay for an untitled Star Wars movie, while he's currently working on the anticipated Peaky Blinders film and a new Disney+ boxing series titled A Thousand Blows which stars Stephen Graham, Malachi Kirby, Hannah Walters and Erin Doherty.
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