“Number Thirteen” – Hitchcock’s Lucky Digit

Source: Variety

Dan Fogler will be playing the legendary director and moviemaking icon Alfred Hitchcock in the indie thriller “Number Thirteen,” which is set to also star Ewan McGregor and the award-winning actor Geoffrey Rush. Chase Palmer has written and will helm the film project, which will begin shooting January 2007.

A work of semi-fiction, the film will center on Hitchocock’s lost and unfinished first film, “Number Thirteen.” Hitch gets caught up in one of his own dilemmas when he ends up in a love triangle with two crew members while making the film. When the lead actor turns up dead, the editor suspects the director and tries to uncover the truth.

In real life Hitch also never did get to finish his film called “Number Thirteen” due to the British film company going financially belly-up during production of the movie. The footage shot is still believed to be lost. The closests he came to getting another like it was a 1932 film entitled “Number Seventeen,” which was considered by the director to be a complete “disaster” and failure, and is truly one of his lesser films. The rotund master of the macabe had a real thing for the ladies. He especially favored blondes. The most famous actresses in his filmography were Anny Ondra, Madeleine Carroll, Joan Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh and Tippi Hedren.