Photo: Hopkins As Hitchcock

Production has begun on Hitchcock aka Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of 'Psycho' and the first photo has been released of Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock.

When I first Hopkins as Hitchcock I was kinda meh but looking at it along with the photo below--I now think they did a fine transformation....

The film will explore how the 1960 classic Psycho was actually quite a departure for Hitch in that it was a more explicitly shocking film which was meant to compete with other low-budget horror pictures of the day. The script weaves in the relationship between Hitchcock and his wife.

Helen Mirren will play his wife Alma Reville, a talented editor in her own right who was particularly good at error correction including dialogue revision, plot inconsistencies and continuity problems such as Janet Leigh swallowing while playing dead for the infamous "Psycho" shower scene. Scarlett Johansson and James D'Arcy are set to play Leigh and Anthony Perkins. Jessica Biel will play actress Vera Miles in the film, Miles character Lila Crane becomes the female lead for the second half of "Psycho". Toni Collette will play Peggy Robertson, Hitchcock's longtime and fiercely protective assistant. Danny Huston is in talks to play Whitfield Cook, Alma's friend and work collaborator. Michael Stuhlbarg will play Lew Wasserman, Hitchcock's charismatic agent. Michael Wincott will play Ed Gein, the Wisconsin-based serial killer upon on whom "Psycho" is based. Wallace Langham would play the legendary Saul Bass who handled the storyboards and title sequence for the film and was instrumental in constructing the infamous shower sequence. Ultimately Bass felt he didn't get enough credit. Kurtwood Smith would play Geoffrey Shurlock, the head of the Motion Picture Production Code--an organization that predated the modern day Motion Picture Association of America  Ralph Macchio will play the film's writer Joseph Stefano.

Sacha Gervasi directs the film that is based on Stephen Rebello's 1990 book which Black Swan co-writer John McLaughlin and Tom Thayer have adapted with author Rebello.

Ivan Reitman, Joe Medjuck and Tom Pollack will produce.

Production is due to start this month.

At one time Ryan Murphy was due to direct the pic.