Many have attempted to bring Rear Window to the stage, but one team has finally secured the rights… and it’s producer Charlie Lyons and director Jay Russell, of Ladder 49 fame. Well, OK. Deadline reports that their Broadway adaptation of Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story “It Had to Be Murder,” on which Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window was based, has gotten the go-ahead from the Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust. Also on board for the project is Tim Guinee, who currently appears on both Revolution and Homeland.
Seeing as HBO just aired The Girl, a film about Hitchcock’s relationship with Tippi Hedren, and the theatrical premiere of the biopic Hitchcock is only a month away, the announcement comes at a moment of renewed pop-cultural interest in the filmmaker. Regardless of timing, though, we’re excited to see Rear Window on Broadway. With its small cast, focused action, and single location, the film is long overdue for a stage adaptation.