I must admit that I wasn’t overly thrilled with the fact that Anthony Hopkins was cast to portray iconic director Alfred Hitchcock in “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” director Sacha Gervasi’s upcoming “Hitchcock”. It’s not that I have anything against the actor, mind you, but I just didn’t think he could pull off the look. Which, you know, is kind of essential to making this sort of biopic work.

Apparently I’ve been proven wrong.

People got a hold of the first image showing Hopkins in full Hitchcock make-up, and the resemblance is actually rather stunning. As long as the actor can pull off the director’s unmistakable voice, then everything should be as right as rain. Honestly, I can’t stop looking at the picture. The similarities are quite striking, not to mention a little eerie.

“Hitchcock”, which was previously titled “Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho”, chronicles the acclaimed filmmaker’s attempt to bring his bone-chilling slasher flick to the big screen. In addition to Hopkins, the film also features Helen Mirren as the director’s wife, Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as actress Vera Miles, James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins, and, last but not least, Ralph Macchio, who has recently been tapped to portray “Psycho” scribe Joe Stefano. Nice.

Production on the film began last Friday, which means the world probably won’t get a good, hard look at “Hitchcock” until sometime next year.

Of course, I’m not the only one who had a pretty strong knee-jerk reaction to seeing Hopkins in full make-up. Twitter obsessives have also chimed in with their opinions, a few of which can be found lurking below.