When streaming giant Netflix announced that Ben Wheatley would direct their new adaptation of Rebecca, the news left many feeling curious.
The 48-year-old film maker is best known as the maverick behind blood-spattered British cult classics including Sightseers, so to have him at the helm of a gothic love story with a haunting twist seemed jarring to say the least.
However, taking on the Daphne du Maurier classic, which inspired the Oscar-winning adaptation by Alfred Hitchcock, was a challenge Wheatley relished.
âThereâs something there in Rebecca I really enjoyed, itâs calling back to an earlier Hollywood where people were unashamed about entertainment and said âright, weâre going to give you it all, here it all is,ââ he said.
âI like the idea of, letâs watch a film that takes us on holiday for twenty minutes. It cheers us up and takes us somewhere else. I got into it.
âI thought this is going to be a real challenge but I thought this probably should be something I do. I read the script and loved it, it felt so far away from stuff Iâd done in the past. Iâm always trying to make movies that are ninety degrees to the last one Iâve made.â
Wheatleyâs version of Rebecca sees the film built in a Russian-doll style; a romance wrapped in a thriller wrapped in a mystery, our nameless heroine (Lily James) falls in love with the brooding and handsome Maxim DeWinter (Armie Hammer), only to see their picture perfect holiday romance haunted by his dead wife Rebecca when they arrive back at Manderley, his estate.
Having worked with Hammer before in Free Fire, Wheatley believed his timeless good looks among other things made him perfect for the deliciously dark DeWinter.
âArmie is like a man out of time in many ways, heâs like a 40s matinee idol,â he said of his leading man, âHeâs like 100 foot tall and incredibly good looking and looks great in a suit.
âI thought itâd be really interesting that you take that and you smash it. The fact that heâs at that pinnacle in the beginning of the movie makes it even worse when you learn the truth about him.â
While Wheatley is no novice when it comes to playing with twists, tension and thrills, romance is a genre he has less experience in.
âThere are a lot of elements in Rebecca that talk to horror, that I think we play along to,â he said. âI believe comedy and horror are bedmates in many ways. Both those genres are about timing, and the controlling of tone. So having made movies where itâs a lot about controlling tone and thinking about how the audience is feeling and manipulating these feelings does help in a film like Rebecca, definitely.
âBut thatâs not what attracted me to the movie. It was more the romance side of it. I was more interested in getting that right and making sure that ran through it. I knew I could do the scary stuff.
â[Doing romance] was fine. The thing about all that stuff is that youâve got to go into it with an open heart and you can't think itâs silly. The whole film was like that.
âIt wasnât smirky and sarcastic â I get that vibe from a lot of films these days. But you believe in it totally and the film believed in itself. It was such a joy to shoot that stuff, shooting on location in the south of France wasnât hard work. Seeing them in the clothes and the car was great.â
And while readers were initially drawn in to the nameless narrator, Wheatley agreed that the self-deprecating heroine may not be so likeable to a modern audience â and noted that Jamesâ interpretation is a little steelier than the novelâs version.
âIn the book, sheâs always banging on about how boring and clumsy she is,â Wheatley chuckled. âI felt like thereâs a gap between what she says in the book, and her actions. Her actions are strong but her inner monologue is weak â thereâs space between those two positions.
âI felt like we were able to make her stronger, and that helped us with a modern audience. Otherwise the conversation would be like, âleave him, go away, donât do it, what are you doing, why did you stay with him?â
âThat had to be policed so DeWinter was attractive enough to stay with but she wasnât so weak that she looked downtrodden. But she wasnât so strong she shot straight out the top of the movie into another movie.â
Rebecca was intended for Netflix, though its sweeping visuals and achingly beautiful cinematography allow it to seamlessly slip onto the bigger screen. The film has been given a limited release in cinemas, which would have likely have been bigger if it werenât for the coronavirus pandemic.
While Wheatley supports the cinemagoing experience, he is also excited at the prospect of Netflix introducing his work to a far wider audience.
âFrom a personal point of view I want to see stuff in the cinema,â he said. âI do think itâs a shame.
âBut Netflix is a big boom and Iâm really happy with that. Part of it is about trying to find a bigger audience and Netflix has a massive audience. Directing Doctor Who is probably the biggest thing Iâve done in terms of being seen, and Rebecca will be seen by a lot of people which is exciting.â
Rebecca is available to stream on Netflix now.
