Hollywood continues to draw on its collection of old classics to adapt them to current tastes. The specialist site Deadline Hollywood announced on Thursday that Paramount Studios has acquired the rights to the suspense Cold sweat (Dizziness)by Alfred Hitchcock to produce a new version.
If the project goes ahead, the role of the retired detective, who was encamped by James Stewart in the original film, would this time be played by actor Robert Downey Jr. Writing of the screenplay has been entrusted to Steven Knight, creator of the hit series Peaky Blinders who has also just been recruited to write the screenplay for the next film in the Star Wars saga.
Released in 1958, Cold Sweats tells the story of Scottie, a former detective who suffers from vertigo after being framed for the death of one of his colleagues who fell from a building. Hired by an acquaintance to follow his young wife, who he says is possessed by the spirit of his maternal great-grandmother, Scottie is once again confronted with his fears.
One of Hitchcock’s most celebrated works, Cold Sweats ranked ninth in the American Film Institute’s 1998 ranking of the 100 greatest American films of all time.