The idea of remaking of a beloved, Oscar-winning film about the ways in which new lovers are unfavorably compared to dead ones is on-the-nose enough that we’ve already expended ourselves of jokes at its expense across two different Newswires. Let us, then, just watch the trailer for Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca, an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel, and do everything in our power not to compare it to the movie that won Alfred Hitchcock his only Best Picture Oscar.
Lily James stars as a young woman who finds herself swallowed by the imposing family estate of her new husband (and widower), Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer). There, the sizable legacy of Maxim’s late wife, Rebecca, is kept alive by a steely housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), who, like the sinister voice whispering in the back of all our minds, tortures James’ newlywed with reminders that she’ll never be as loved.
Wheatley, the High Rise director who built his career on a number of high-wire genre exercises, directs a script by Kingsman writer Jane Goldman. Ann Dowd, Keeley Hawes, and Sam Riley round out the cast.
Rebecca hits Netflix on October 21, just in time for Halloween.