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A&E On ‘Bates Motel’ And ‘Psycho’ As Inspiration: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday January 4, 2013 @ 2:54pm PSTTags: A&E, Bates Motel, Psycho, TCA

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

At today’s TCA panel on A&E’s new original scripted drama series Bates Motel, most questions had to do with how the series, from executive producers Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin, would or would not pay homage to the movie Psycho. For the record, the producers say it won’t but various Psycho incarnations are used as inspiration to create an original story.

“We don’t really view any of that as canon,” Cuse said. He called a desire to avoid “homage” a reason why the story has a contemporary setting, rather than being set in the ’60s. He added that the story of how young Bates becomes a murderous adult “will not be what you expect it to be.” (He did confirm that the story would be serialized but “have a beginning, middle and end” and will not focus on a single individual mystery or story point.) Although Cuse rejects the idea of “homage,” he said that show producers used the original plans for the movie Bates Motel that stands on the Universal Studios lot to recreate the motel on location in Vancouver.

Related: A&E Sets Premiere Date For ‘Psycho’ Prequel Series ‘Bates Motel’: TCA

But not surprisingly, a question arose about whether post-Newtown is a bad time to introduce an entertainment series about a disturbed young man with a troubled relationship with his mother who eventually turns violent. Said Ehrin: “I think the only thing anyone thought about that was that it was horrible and sad. This show is not about violence, it’s about a mother and son.” She said that the story is trying to “explain” violence rather than promote it. READ MORE »

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Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ The Greatest Movie Of All Time? And The Director Could Have New Oscar And Emmy Contenders

By PETE HAMMOND | Sunday August 5, 2012 @ 12:40pm PDTTags: Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Hopkins, Psycho, Scarlett Johansson, Sight & Sound, Tippi Hedren, Vertigo
Pete Hammond

Alfred Hitchcock has been dead for 32 years. The last film he made, Family Plot, was released in 1976 yet his popularity among movie fans and cineastes alike has never seemed to wane. To put it bluntly, Hitch has never been hotter. This week proof of that was offered by the ascension of his 1958 classic Vertigo to the No. 1 spot on the British Film Institute’s Sight & Sound survey of the so-called 50 Greatest Films Of All Time as selected this year by 846 critics, film scholars and historians, the largest sampling ever in the once a decade list that has been compiled every 10 years since 1962. Ever since the inception of the esteemed poll the British international film journal has named Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane as the Number 1 greatest film of all time — until 2012 when suddenly Hitchcock vaulted to the top after a slow, steady ascent since first appearing on the list of the Top 10 films in 1982. It is certainly interesting that this particular Hitchcock film starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, not even a huge hit in 1958 and recipient of only two minor Oscar nominations, for Color Art Direction and Sound, has become the master’s  masterpiece in the eyes of the world’s top film writers and scholars. The only other Hitchcock film on the list is Psycho at number 35, although I personally count numerous others including North By Northwest, Rear Window,  Notorious, even The Birds as equally deserving. I’m not at all sure Vertigo, great as it is, is the greatest of all time. Really? David Lean who directed such immortal greats as Lawrence Of Arabia and The Bridge On The River Kwai doesn’t have a single film in the top 50 and you could argue all day about other omissions and inclusions (there’s no DAVID Lean but there is DAVID Lynch at No. 28 with Mulholland Drive. Hmmm). Read More »

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‘Hitchcock’ Revealed By Fox Searchlight

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Saturday April 21, 2012 @ 2:20pm PDTTags: Psycho

This is the studio’s first look at Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock in director Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock, which recently started filming as the love story between the famed helmer and his wife. It’s based on Stephen Rebello’s book Alfred Hitchcock And The Making of Psycho:

… Read More »

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A&E Develops ‘Psycho’ Prequel Series: TCA

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday January 13, 2012 @ 11:35am PSTTags: A&E, Psycho
Nellie Andreeva

A&E said today that it is in early development on Bates Motel, a drama series that serves as a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s horror classic Psycho. Bates Motel, from Universal TV and writer Anthony Cipriano, will delve into how Norman Bates’ dark, twisted backstory from childhood through his teen years and will chronicle how his mother, Norma, and her lover damaged Norman, helping  shape the most well-known serial killing motel owner in history.

Also in development at A&E is Those Who Kill, an adaptation of a Danish series which in turn was based on author Elsebeth Egholm’s books. The project, from Imagine Television and Fox21, centers on a female police detective and a “profiler” (forensic psychiatrist), on the hunt for serial killers. Glen Morgan will write the script and will executive produce with Brian Grazer, Francie Calfo, Peter Bose and Jonas Allen. Read More »

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