Scorsese does Hitchcock

In one of the most brilliant ad campaigns I’ve ever seen, Martin Scorsese directs (and preserves) a film from a three-page, never-filmed, thought-to-be-lost Hitchcock script called The Key to Reserva (tee!). As he explains it,"It's one thing to preserve a film that's been made. It's another thing to preserve a film that's not been made."

On his approach to the film: “I’m obviously not going to shoot them (the three pages) as I would. But can I shoot them as Hitchcock? I don’t think so. So who will I shoot them as? This is the question.”

The whole thing is just brilliant and amazing how it captures the look and feel of a Hitchcock film. The music, the camera angles, even the Hitchcock blonde whose resemblance to Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest is positively uncanny.

Some of the tributes I spotted were (highlight to read): the concert hall scene from The Man Who Knew Too Much, the key and the wine bottle MacGuffin from the wine-cellar scene in Notorious, the R.O.T. monogram from North By Northwest, the red flashbulb effect from Rear Window, the falling sequence in Vertigo, and of course, The Birds.
Which ones can you spot?

The clock behind Scorsese near the end reads 6:01. Significance?



Thanks to Pop Candy for the link.

Bedroom Window

As a Halloween treat (their words, not mine!), eHarlequin.com is re-running one of my past serials, Bedroom Window through October 31.

This is my homage to Rear Window. And, yes, I do have a thing for Alfred Hitchcock. And doesn't this bit of news fit nicely in my Alfred Hitchcock tribute week?

Hitchcock's Blondes

Alfred Hitchcock once said, "You know why I favor sophisticated blondes in my films? We're after the drawing-room type, the real ladies, who become whores once they're in the bedroom....Because sex should not be advertised....Because without the element of surprise the scenes become meaningless. There's no possibility to discover sex."

Exactly.

Hitchcock's obsession with cool blondes began in the 1940s and reached a climax with the troubled, secretive women of Psycho (1960) and Marnie (1964).

Here's a look at the most famous of Hitchcock's Blondes:

Music by Bat for Lashes

News

I’ve decided to make Fridays news/gossip day. This is where I’ll keep you informed about what’s happening in the writing world. Agreed, not as much fun as Clive Owen Wednesdays, but I do want to keep my readers up-to-date on works in progress and so forth.

On Monday, I submitted a three-page premise for a new thriller to my editor and she loved it. Whew! The story is pretty dark and creepy so I was a little concerned, but turns out that’s what she loved about it. And here is my agent’s take: “Just read the synopsis and am fighting the urge to jump from my chair and shake the heebie jeebies from my body. This is SCARY!!” Just the reaction I wanted. Yea!

In my spare time (hahahahahaha), I’ve been working on what I thought was a first-person mystery series set in Austin, Texas, but the first book has morphed into an urban thriller about voyeurism inspired by three legendary films—Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1962), and Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966). Here is my one-sentence summary: “An insomniac writer searching for inspiration exploits a young filmmaker’s new voyeuristic pastime.”

As I reported last time, The Devil’s Footprints is in production and will hit the bookshelves on March 1, 2008. I’ve been collaborating on a trailer with the powerhouse duo of Lucas Amann (filmmaker) and Leanne Amann (my advertising guru), and we’re really hoping to come up with something special. I’ll keep you posted during production, maybe even have some snippets I can put up.

Texas Ransom, my next Intrigue, will be out in January.

And just because all this business stuff is a little boring, check out Jonathan Ross's interview with Daniel Craig promoting Casino Royale. So cute.