By Scott Mendelson
Variety broke the story, but since they have a pay-wall, I’ll link to The Playlist. I’m not one to comment on every bit of casting news as it happens, but this one is personally exciting so I’ll share. Most of the hubbub about Fox Searchlight’s Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho has focused on the casting of Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh and Jessica Biel as Vera Miles, with Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren as Mr. Hitchcock and his wife Alma Hitchcock. But buried in the flurry of casting news is what I can only pray is a comeback role for one of my favorite character actors: Michael Wincott will be playing real-life serial-murderer Ed Gein, who allegedly served as the inspiration for Norman Bates (arguably more-so in the original Robert Bloch novel than the Hitchcock movie). Anyway, I won’t go into Gein’s sordid history here (although he’s only confirmed to have murdered a few people), but I will say that if you feel like spending $9 to buy the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on blu-ray, there is a fine documentary about the man. He is the loose inspiration for Norman Bates, Leatherface, and Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs, so I suppose it makes sense that he would play a role in this making-of-a-movie story.