A&E devloping Psycho prequel series

[CaptJimboJones]

Interestingly the author of the original novel, Robert Bloch, wrote two sequels that were completely unrelated to the sequel movies.

So there's an enormous amount of Psycho-related material out there, pretty much none of which (IMO) is anywhere near the quality of the original Hitchcock film.

IIRC Hitchcock intended Psycho as a quick, low-budget B film to satisfy the studio after the disappointing performance of Vertigo, which he considered his artistic masterpiece. And Psycho turned out to be the movie he is best known for, and in many ways influenced modern cinema more than any of his other works.

[Enterprise is Great]

Carlton Cuse is boarding A&E’s The Bates Motel.

A&E is developing the series, being produced by Mark Wolper and Roy Lee, as a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The 1960 horror classic featured an off-his-rocker motel manager named Norman Bates who murdered occasional boarders while under the watch of his even-more-psychotic mother.

If the show is picked up to series, Cuse will executive produce and oversee the writing and production what is being envisioned intially as a six-episode “event" that would lead to additional seasons.

[Enterprise is Great]

A&E orders "Psycho" prequel "Bates Motel" to series

From Lost's Carlton Cuse and Friday Night Lights' Kerry Ehrin, the series is inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and is described as a contemporary exploration of Norman Bates' formative years. It will explore his relationship with his mother, Norma, and offer a look at
the back story that helped forge the famed serial killer. It's been dubbed as a cross between Twin Peaks and Smallville.

The series, which will begin preproduction and casting immediately, is scheduled for a 2013 premiere on A&E. Cuse and Ehrin will executive produce the Universal Television and Carlton Cuse Productions effort. Anthony Cipriano penned the pilot script.

[Temis the Vorta]

Vera Farmiga has been cast in the lead, as Norma Bates. Well, that's a good sign anyway.

And if they want to do flashbacks to her as a young woman, they can cast Vera's look-alike, much younger sister Taissa.

[Greg Cox]

23skidoo wrote:

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This is yet another case of Hollywood missing the point and attempting to reinvent a character who was defined by his actor and nothing else. Yes, Hitchcock set the scene with a classic movie. But the character lived and breathed because of Anthony Perkins. Unless they've found a way to clone Perkins or bring him back from the dead, this strikes me as a useless exercise and simply a way for A&E to cash in on Dexter.

With all due respect to Hitchcock and Perkins, it's worth pointing out once again that Norman Bates was created by Robert Bloch, who almost never gets the credit he deserves.

It's always appalled me how often Bloch gets ignored or dismissed when the topic of PSYCHO comes up . . . .

[Temis the Vorta]

Perkins isnt so unique anyway. Just look at Michael C. Hall and Anthony Hopkins who also created indelible serial killers. In Hall's case anyway, his performance is very distinct from the character in the source novels, and for my money, superior. I'm sure there's at least one talented young actor out there capable of performing the role of young Norman perfectly well.

[Enterprise is Great]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Vera Farmiga has been cast in the lead, as Norma Bates. Well, that's a good sign anyway.

Well, this show just got more interesting...

[Aragorn]

Enterprise is Great wrote:

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Well, this show just got more interesting...

Which is odd since I've read interviews where she said she hated being tied down to TV shows and were glad they got canceled. And that was back before she was getting plenty of movie roles.

[Captaindemotion]

^This series seems to be shorter than most and presumably doesn't tie her down as much.

Who knows, maybe her sister recommended doing a show like this, after her own experience on American Horror Story.

[CaptJimboJones]

Greg Cox wrote:

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With all due respect to Hitchcock and Perkins, it's worth pointing out once again that Norman Bates was created by Robert Bloch, who almost never gets the credit he deserves.

It's always appalled me how often Bloch gets ignored or dismissed when the topic of PSYCHO comes up . . . .

Bloch's character was loosely based on Ed Gein, IIRC.

[Greg Cox]

CaptJimboJones wrote:

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Bloch's character was loosely based on Ed Gein, IIRC.

Loosely. But Bloch invented the Bates Motel, the shower scene, the fact that Norman thinks he's his own mother, the fact that the seeming protagonist, Marion Crane, is abruptly killed off early on . . . all stuff that movie critics and journalists routinely credit to Hitchcock.

("Only Hitchcock would be bold enough to kill off the heroine a third of the way through the movie!"--despite the fact that this was straight from the novel.)

A few months ago, when the 50th anniversary of the movie rolled around, there was a flurry of gushing articles about the movie--and you really had to search to find any reference to Bloch. At best he got a subordinate clause or parenthetical aside. Usually, he's treated as a footnote.

And just try to find Bloch's name in the credits of the remake. It's buried in small type in the closing credits, alongside the key grip and the caterer.

[Harvey]

Greg Cox wrote:

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("Only Hitchcock would be bold enough to kill off the heroine a third of the way through the movie!"--despite the fact that this was straight from the novel.)

Bloch has certainly been overlooked in appreciations of the movie (a fate that has befallen most of the authors of material adapted by Hitchcock to the screen, unfortunately). Even the screenwriters he employed have struggled for recognition under the great behemoth of Hitchcock's media personality.

On this point, however, I think Hitchcock deserves some credit, both for choosing to adapt Bloch's novel and staying true to it's twist where the heroine is murdered part way through. That was bold move for the novel, but an even bolder move for the movies -- especially in a 1960 studio production. Bloch deserves all the credit for coming up with it, though.

[Captaindemotion]

The other thing to note about the twist is that apparently in the late 50s and early 1960s, it would have been common for people to walk into a cinema halfway through a showing. They would then sit on through the next showing until they'd reached the point of the movie where they first came in (at the last showing) and then go home.

Hitch persuaded movie owners not to let audience members do this for Psycho, as he reckoned that seeing the movie in this fashion would diminish the power of the twist, whereby the movie's apparent heroine was killed off so brutally and relatively early.

[Greg Cox]

Harvey wrote:

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Bloch has certainly been overlooked in appreciations of the movie (a fate that has befallen most of the authors of material adapted by Hitchcock to the screen, unfortunately). Even the screenwriters he employed have struggled for recognition under the great behemoth of Hitchcock's media personality.

On this point, however, I think Hitchcock deserves some credit, both for choosing to adapt Bloch's novel and staying true to it's twist where the heroine is murdered part way through. That was bold move for the novel, but an even bolder move for the movies -- especially in a 1960 studio production. Bloch deserves all the credit for coming up with it, though.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge Hitchcock fan; I was watching a documentary on the making of North by Northwest just the other day. And he certainly deserves plenty of credit for directing the movie as effectively as he did.

It's just that Bloch's contributions often get swept under the rug, as though Norman Bates sprang directly from Hitch's brow . . . .

(I've actually met people, even in the film industry, who had no idea that PSYCHO was based on a book . . . .)

[Harvey]

^^
Oh, I totally agree that Bloch (along with plenty of other authors and screenwriters) deserve much more credit for their contributions. Value added content for Hitchcock films tends to suggest that Hitchcock exercised total control over his screenwriters, firing them if they didn't do exactly what he wanted. (1) This is probably an exaggeration and (2) It manages to ignore the fact that most of Hitchcock's films were adaptations of books or plays.