Despite lacklustre results in Knight and Day and The Tourist, Hollywood execs still seem set on reviving the caper movie as a viable alternative to flicks based on superheroes and toy lines. Hence the reveal from screenwriter Josh Stolberg that he's just turned in his script for **To Catch a Thief.
Originally directed, of course, by the great Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, To Catch a Thief is the story of ex-cat-burglar and French Resistance fighter John Robie, glamorously trying to clear his name following a spate of French Riviera jewel robberies that resemble his old modus operandi.
"It's one of my favourite Hitchcock movies," says Stolberg, "so it was exciting and fun to come at it from a different angle. It's the first script I've ever written with a lot of heists and action sequences, and we made it a little more modern and 'gadgety'. It's a blast! It takes place in Santorini and it's a travelogue of the most amazing places on Earth."
To Catch a Thief is the only Hitchcock film to which Paramount still control the rights, so it's them we must thank for this prospect. Stolberg and his co-writer Robert Florsheim handed in their work a couple of months ago, and Stolberg says that the casting process is now just beginning. Neil Moritz (Fast Five) is producing.