Screenwriter John Michael Hayes on 'Rear Window' (2001)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
This 13-minute featurette is pretty much described by the title itself.
Screenwriter John Michael Hayes is interviewed about certain points of
his early life but the main focus is his work on Hitchcock's REAR
WINDOW. The screenwriter talks about his early days of going to movies
and how he realized that certain screenwriters and directors were
dependable in regards to turning out a good product. He talks about how
he always considered Hitchcock one of these people so he then talks
about how he got the book sent to him. This led to a dinner with
Hitchcock where the screenwriter was asked what his favorite film of
his was, which he replied SHADOW OF A DOUBT. This here led to the
screenwriter thinking he blew his chance at the new project but the
rest is history. This is a pretty fun interview because John Michael
Hayes goes into so much detail about his ideas on the story, what
Hitchcock asked for and there's even a discussion about him spending a
week with Grace Kelly so that he could get a good idea about her
because her character wasn't in the original book. He also tells some
great stories about basing her character after his wife and how during
the preview she caught onto what he had done. The writer says that at
the end of production you just knew it was a case where everything had
gone right and they all knew it.
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