Scarlet Johansson cast as Janet Leigh

Scarlet Johansson has been cast as Janet Leigh in Fox Searchlight's upcoming 'Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho'.

The film has been in development for years now with casting only recently becoming locked. Johansson will play the revered actress who landed her most iconic role in the master director's horror.

Her performance is memorable in that she is built up as the film's lead actress only to be killed off before the halfway mark, shattering the conventions of typical Hollywood filmmaking.  

Johansson, fresh off her all-action role in the star-heavy 'Marvel Avengers Assemble' (great trailer HERE), will star alongside James D'Arcy's take on Anthony Perkins. Perkins, of course, played the psychotic hotel owner of the film's title.

Rounding out the cast are two British veterans - Anthony Hopkins will play the director, Alfred Hitchcock while Helen Mirren will portray his Alma. Behind the camera, the film boasts 'Black Swan' screenwriter John J McLaughlin and 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil' director Sacha Gervasi.

The film appears to be capitalising on the success of the similar 'My Week With Marilyn' which saw Michelle Williams' screen siren Monroe clash with Kenneth Branagh's struggling actor/director Laurence Olivier as they made 'The Prince and the Showgirl' together. Both Williams and Branagh received Oscar nominations.

As a side note, Johansson has previously made herself up as another Hitchcock actress - Grace Kelly in a 'Rear Window' inspired shoot for Vanity Fair's Hitchcock tribute issue. In the same issue, 'La Vie En Rose' star Marion Cotillard posed as Janet Leigh in 'Psycho'.

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