Universal Pictures--the studio behind Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic and Gus Van Sant's 1998 recreation--have nixed a red-carpet premiere for the new version. Why? To ensure that even the movie's marketing campaign is true to the spirit of the original.
That's dedication.
That's also a good way to get publicity ostensibly by not seeking publicity.
In the name of carrying the Psycho-remake gimmick as far as it can, Universal is also declining to screen the movie in advance for critics.
The film, starring Anne Heche (subbing for Janet Leigh's doomed Marion Crane) and Vince Vaughn (spelling Anthony Perkins as spooky Norman Bates), opens in theaters December 4.
While no-press-screenings is usually the sure sign of a stinker, in Psycho's case, the move's being sold as yet another homage to Hitchcock. In 1960, there were no Psycho sneaks--and there won't be in 1998, either.
"The whole experience was a mind trip," Heche told the Los Angeles Times. "After dailies each day, I'd say to Gus, 'This is getting weirder and weirder!' "
To be sure, there have been some concessions to the times. Universal is, for instance, running TV spots for the movie--even if that sort of thing wasn't done 38 years ago.
Plot-wise, it was said only minor changes were being ordered. Example: Instead of trying to get out of town with $40,000, Heche's felonious-minded Crane lifts $400,000.
In an interview with the December issue of Out magazine, costar Julianne Moore lets it slip that not all the changes concern monetary inflation.
Moore, who plays Crane's sister Lila (the Vera Miles role in the original), says the character is now a "movie butch" lesbian.
"Honestly, nobody is gonna care," Moore says, in Out.
Exactly how anybody is gonna know that Lila Crane is a lesbian isn't clear. In the original, no-nonsense Lila Crane didn't exactly spill the goods on her private life. For all the audience of that film knew, Miles' Lila was a lesbian then, too. Or a bride-to-be. (No one asked; she didn't tell.)
Moore says character asserts her new self, in part, through her wardrobe.
"I wear this one shirt that could almost give you vertigo," she says--invoking the name of yet another Hitchcock film.