Kristin Scott Thomas takes on the role of the controlling and vindictive Mrs. Danvers in the first trailer for Ben Wheatley’s modernized take on “Rebecca” starring Lily James and Armie Hammer.
Daphne Du Maurier’s 1938 book was first adapted for the screen in Alfred Hitchock’s 1940 film, which starred Hollywood royalty like Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson — and wound up winning the Oscar for Best Picture.
The new film plays on those same moody thrills, with Scott Thomas’ Danvers carefully turning the screws on James’ newly married character about the lingering presence of Rebecca, the deceased wife of Hammer’s character.
“She’s still here. Do you feel her?” Scott Thomas asks in the first trailer. “She was the love of his life. I wonder what she thinks of you, taking her husband, using her name.”
In “Rebecca,” a young newlywed arrives at her husband’s imposing family estate on the windswept English coast and finds herself battling the shadow of his first wife, Rebecca, whose legacy lives on in the house long after her death. Her haunting legacy is kept alive by Mrs. Danvers, the husband’s sinister housekeeper who seems bent on driving the new bride mad.
Wheatley directed “Rebecca” and his film will release on Netflix on October 21. The film is based on Du Maurier’s novel and was adapted for the screen by Jane Goldman and Joe Shrapnel with Anna Waterhouse.
Check out the first trailer for “Rebecca” above.