Jessica Biel Is Under The Thumb Of 'Alfred Hitchcock'
With Scarlett Johansson already in the bag to play showerific actress Janet Leigh in "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of 'Psycho,'" the film still needed another powerhouse hottie for its other female lead.
Enter Jessica Biel who, according to Deadline, has just landed the juicy role of Vera Miles, who played Lila Crane in Hitchcock's 1960 slasher classic. Lila was the plucky sister of Leigh's not-so-plucky victim who goes to the Bates Motel to investigate the disappearance.
But Sacha Gervasi's biopic on the struggle to make one of the all-time great terror flicks will also undoubtedly cover the oddball relationship between Hitch and Miles, whom the director was grooming to be his next ingénue leading lady in films like "Vertigo" (eventually played by Kim Novak) before pregnancy and other issues between them caused a falling out.
Although Miles had high profile roles in John Wayne movies like "The Searchers," and even reprised Lila in "Psycho II," her post-Hitchcock career was mainly on television until she retired in 1995. She's currently 81-years-old, although no word on whether she'll act as advisor to the "The Making of 'Psycho'."
As if Biel and Johansson weren't enough star wattage to go around, they will be joined by Anthony Hopkins as the title Master of Suspense, Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville (a.k.a. Lady Hitchcock), and possibly James D'Arcy ("W.E.") as the spitting image of Norman Bates himself, Anthony Perkins.
Biel was last seen in the romantic comedy calamity "New Year's Eve" and will soon get her sci-fi freak on in the big budget remake of "Total Recall" opposite Colin Farrell.
