Walter Hill has found financing for his remake of the Joan Crawford/Betty Davis classic Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? in the form of Lakeshore Entertainment.
Hill announced his intention to write and direct a remake of the classic film earlier in the summer.
The original film, directed by Robert Aldrich and adapted from Henry Farrell’s novel by Lukas Heller, centered on two sisters, one (Davis) whose celebrity as a child star diminished while the other’s grew as an adult star (Crawford). With both of their stars having faded, the two now live together in a crumbling Hollywood mansion with their hatred for each other barely kept below the surface. Hill has stated that he will keep the film’s 1960s setting as it is needed to keep the character’s Golden Age of Hollywood background intact.
Thanks to the casting of Davis and Crawford in the film was a bit of a masterstroke, as the two had feuded privately and publicly for years and that carried over into their performances and, unfortunately for Aldrich and the rest of the folks working on the film, on-set behavior. But however unprofessional their antics towards each other during production, the result was a classic. While Hill is a great director, I have to wonder if he will be able to find two actresses who will be able to create a similar chemistry that Crawford and Davis shared.
Via Hollywood Reporter.
