“The content was, I felt, rather amusing and it was a big joke. I was horrified to find some people took it seriously,” said Hitchcock in 1964.

I think this is just a case of Hitchcock trying to be provocative. There’s no way that Psycho was meant to be received as a comedy, though it is much more funny than Russell Brand. (Daily Mail)

Reviews of Silent House are almost evenly split with the consensus being gimmicky but scary, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Of course, real time isn’t for everyone as you’ll see with the real time films listed below. What do you think, is real time worthwhile or a waste of time?

16 Blocks

Bruce Willis plays a burnt out New York City detective tasked with escorting Mos Def (aka Mos) to his grand jury testimonial. However, Mos’s Eddie is set to testify against a crooked cop who will in turn bring down every crooked cop in the department. Willis and Mos then have 90 minutes to travel the sixteen blocks downtown with an army of cops trying to kill them. I recommend they just take 2nd Avenue. Everyone else swears by the FDR but I’ve had little luck on it.

Nick of Time

In Nick of Time, Johnny Depp plays a mild-mannered accountant who is ordered to assassinate a Governor in exchange for his daughter’s life. We know that he’s mild-mannered because his character isn’t wearing earrings, face paint, or a dead crow on his head. Christopher Walken is excellent as Depp’s kidnapper and tormentor. The lesson here: never get in a van with Christopher Walken.

The film is based on a non-fiction book and will be directed by Anvil! The Story of Anvil helmer Sacha Gervasi with a script by Black Swan‘s John J. McLaughlin. Somehow or another, Paul Giamatti wasn’t cast as Hitchcock. That role will be filled by Anthony Hopkins and his wife will be played by Helen Mirren. James D’Arcy will play Anthony Perkins. If this goes well, I hope to see Megan Fox in a sequel about the making of The Birds. (Variety)

While the find is making headlines, it is far from unique. Throughout the years, numerous supposedly lost films have been rediscovered. Here are nine famous examples.

Cléopâtre – (1899)

Considered one of the earliest horror films of all time, Georges Méliès’ Cléopâtre told the story of the reanimated mummified corpse of the ancient Egyptian queen. Although it was thought lost for decades, a print was found in 2005.

It goes without saying that the picture above is not directly related to the film.

Special effects artist Harry Raymond Jr. passed away this week. He worked from the 1930s to the mid-60s, creating special effects for such films as King Kong, The Last Days of Pompeii, Orson Welles‘ The Stranger, Fritz Lang’s The Woman in the Window, The Bishop’s Wife and seven films for Alfred Hitchcock. Harry’s wife, Dorothea Holt Redmond, was a production illustrator for Gone With The Wind. She died in 2009.

Raymond died in Los Angeles of natural causes at the age of 101. Thanks to special effects, he looked to be a very spry 97. (Variety)

Anyway, they’re getting around to The Kid Who Knew Too Much (is it really going to be called that? Good lord), and it’s apparently going to be a neat reversal of the premise for the first movie (movies, actually – Hitchcock made the movie once in the 30s, and remade it in the 50s) which has a couple traveling overseas trying to find their son who’s kidnapped as part of an assassination plot. The new version would have the “kid” of the title trying to rescue his parents, because that’s something that’s believable.

Film buffs will recall that the 1956 version of this story spawned a popular song for Doris Day “Que Sera Sera,” so it might make sense to cast a singer in the lead role. Might we be reporting in a few months that the movie is going to be called The Bieber Who Knew Too Much? (via SlashFilm)

I can see it now. “Hello Alma,” ultra super creepy Hitchcock (played by Hopkins) says to his wife and editor Alma Reville in a disturbing whisper. “I think you need to cut a little bit more off that scene,” he says, brandishing a large knife. “Which part? The tail end or the head,” Alma asks, her attention focused on the editing deck. “How about… the neck.” He slices her throat, just like what happened in real life. Yes, that really happened, don’t consult Wikipedia or his many biographies.

Actually, Hopkins has been rumored to play the North By Northwest director for years, when Ryan Murphy was attached to the project. Murphy’s version didn’t come together, and he later went on to create something far scarier than anything Hitchcock ever made: “Glee.” (/Film)

The movie is set to be about the period of Hitch’s life during which he made his most popular film, Psycho. You know who looks a lot like Anthony Perkins, the star of Psycho? Andrew Garfield. And it will take Spider-Man to make Alfred Hitchcock‘s boring off-screen life seem interesting. (via SlashFilm)