Robert Downey Jr. Signs on for ‘Vertigo’ Remake

Robert Downey Jr. has signed on for a new project, a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Vertigo.

Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to the project. And Downey Jr. and his wife, Susan Downey, are listed as producers on the project. The creator of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight, has also signed onto the psychological thriller to write the screenplay.

Robert Downey Jr.’s Recent and Upcoming Projects

Robert Downey Jr., who was last seen in Netflix’s Sr., a documentary that followed the life and career of Robert Downey Sr., has had a low profile the last few years. His last leading row was in 2020’s Dolittle, which ended up grossing just over $251 million worldwide against its 175 million budget. 

Despite the slower pace of projects since the pandemic, Downey Jr. has no shortage of work in the pipeline. Fans can next see him this summer in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer as Lewis Strauss. He’s also filming a new mini-series for HBO from A24 called The Sympathizer.

A Little More on Vertigo…

1958’s Vertigo was a hit with movie-goers. It grossed more than $7.7 million globally, more than tripling its $2.4 million budget. The movie followed a former San Francisco police detective who retired due to a crippling fear of heights brought on by a severe case of vertigo. We follow his story as he juggles wrestling with his personal demons and his growing obsession with the stunningly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail. Spoiler alert, she may be deeply disturbed.

The movie gets a little “strange,” to say the least. Film critics were fairly divided on their opinions when the movie was first released. However, as the decades passed, the film became recognized as a masterpiece by the 1980s.

By 1989, Vertigo was one of the first 25 movies selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

While Alfred Hitchcock’s films have inspired a handful of remakes over the years. There hasn’t been an American studio that has attempted a true remake of Vertigo until now.

The Vertigo Remake Is Still in the Early Stages of Development

With more than 2o projects in various stages of development, it’s unclear when Robert Downey Jr. would film this Vertigo remake. The project is also still listed as being in the “treatment” stage of development on IMDb.

With the unclear timing at the moment, there’s also no release date set for the project yet. But we’ll keep you posted as more news on the upcoming film surfaces.