Robert Downey Jr. admits his Vertigo remake is 'advisably ridiculous'

Robert Downey Jr. has admitted his possible remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic Vertigo is "advisably ridiculous".

Back in March, it was announced that the Iron Man star was producing a remake of the 1958 thriller and considering starring in the lead role made famous by James Stewart.

When asked about the project in an interview with The New York Times, Downey Jr. said, "We are certainly looking into it... (It's) not even risky. Advisably ridiculous to even consider. Great, let's look into it! First of all, who would our partners be in it? Love them, respect them. Second of all, let me reread the original synopsis. I think we can do better (laughs)."

Vertigo followed a former police detective as he wrestled with his personal demons and became obsessed with the woman he had been hired to trail. The remake's script was going to be written by Peaky Blinders' Steven Knight before the writers went on strike in May.

Downey Jr. explained that they can "do better" because of the way they plan to depict the lead character's vertigo cinematically.

"I have been rock climbing before and gotten stuck in that panic freeze, and if not for the sheer embarrassment, I would have asked to have been hoisted off that rock. I lost my confidence in my positioning, the drop was too far, my body reacted. It wasn't fight-or-flight; it was freeze-and-about-to-faint," he recalled. "I'll never forget it, and it made me think there are cinematic devices that have yet to be fully utilized that I think would provide an experience in trying to say, 'What does it feel like to be psychologically silly with fear over something that should be manageable?' That might be entertaining."

Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not.