Free Fire
filmmaker Ben Wheatley has added four new powerhouse names to his Rebecca lineup, Netflix announced Friday.
Keeley Hawes, Ann Dowd, Sam Riley and Ben Crompton will join Wheatley’s new adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s gothic classic Rebecca, produced by Working Title.
Hawes is riding high after her role as Julia Montague in the Netflix sensation Bodyguard and has previously worked with Wheatley on High-Rise. You can also catch her alongside Keira Knightley in the forthcoming indie flick Misbehaviour.
Riley, best-known for his 2007 performance as Ian Curtis in Control, will join the cast after his work on Maleficent and Pride and Prejudice, while Dowd, considered one of the best character actors of our time, comes to Rebecca after a recent Emmy win for her work on The Handmaid’s Tale. Her recent film credits include American Animals and Hereditary.
Last but not least, Crompton is heading to the Rebecca set after playing Eddison Tollett, a brother of the Night’s Watch, on Game of Thrones.
The actors join an already-expansive cast led by Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James and Armie Hammer. Kingsman screenwriter Jane Goldman has been juggling writing a Game of Thrones prequel with her work on the Rebecca screenplay.
Du Marier’s 1938 classic has been adapted plenty of times over the years, including in an Orson Welles-fronted radio version and, most notably, a 1940 Alfred Hitchcock flick—the movie that still stands as Hitchcock’s one and only Best Picture Oscar win.
Rebecca tells the woeful story of a freshly married young woman who arrives at her husband’s imposing estate only to battle the shadowy specter of her husband’s dead first wife, the mysterious Rebecca, who haunts the house.
Cameras start rolling in the U.K. and France next week as Wheatley sets off on his first full-length feature since Happy New Year, Colin Burstead. No word yet on when Rebecca will hit Netflix.