Fans of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 Gothic thriller, Rebecca, will soon be able to go to Manderley again.
A new movie version of the classic novel will be released on Netflix on Oct. 21, and its trailer was released today. It stars Yesterday’s Lily James, Call Me by Your Name’s Armie Hammer, and Oscar nominee Kristin Scott Thomas, and is directed by Ben Wheatley, who helmed a stylish adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise in 2015.
In the book, an unnamed American woman becomes the second wife of a wealthy Englishman, Maxim de Winter, after a brief courtship. They go to live at Manderley, his beautiful country estate, where the imperious and frightening caretaker, Mrs. Danvers, displays an obsession with Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, who allegedly perished in a boating mishap a year ago. It becomes clear, however, that the circumstances of Rebecca’s life—and death—may be more complicated than they initially appear. Kirkus’ review called the novel “a brilliant piece of writing,” noting that “a haunting sense of impending tragedy keeps one breathless to the end.”
Du Maurier’s novel was famously adapted in 1940 as a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Joan Fontaine, Lawrence Olivier, and Judith Anderson in the main roles; it’s the only Hitchcock film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The book also inspired several TV adaptations, as well as Sally Beauman’s 2001 novel, Rebecca’s Tale, which tells the same story from several other characters’ perspectives.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
