Imagine [Hitchcock] trying to get a movie made today!
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He'd use digital and scale back his SFX ambitions to save costs. After a web blitz and glowing mention on Boing Boing and fellow travelers, he'd try to sell the movie to IFC or a similar outlet.
Next, he'd market his movie to (pre-economic collapse) Harvey Weinstein or someone comparable for distribution, get a showing at a festival, become the toast of Cannes and receive glowing write-ups from the sort of critic who laments the lack of more films like this brilliant newcomer's. Ebert would delve into the movie's ideas in an accessible but still above-average way. A.O. Scott would bitchily bitch (but love it all the same). The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" section would cover 21st Century Hitch's triumphant arrival in Manhattan (Zizek would be involved, probably at a New York Public Library lecture series event titled "The Unknown Knowns").
An LBO poster would mention a showing in the Bay area. Probably a double feature with "Killer of Sheep" or the 45,000 hour epic, "Berlin Alexanderplatz".
New Hitch would be known by a streamlined moniker -- perhaps HC or, if a Gawker writer's on the case and feeling grumpy, Le Cock.
Michael Bay would buy the rights for a sequel. "Vertgo 2: Fall of the Fallen" The budget would equal the GDP of Luxembourg. On-set explosions detonated during filming are visible from the International Space Station. Bruce Sterling smart-assedly writes about that factoid, inserting the terms "gothic high tech" and "favela chic" into every paragraph.
21st Century Hitch retires to Sri Lanka.
.d.