Dame Kristin Scott Thomas has joined Lily James and Armie Hammer in the new film adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.

She'll play Mrs. Danvers, creepy and overbearing housekeeper of Manderley, the beautiful but doom-laden estate at the heart of the story. It's a part that seems like a perfect fit for Scott Thomas, who's excelled at playing formidable and somewhat frosty characters in movies such as Nowhere Boy and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

James is playing the second Mrs de Winter, who arrives at Manderley with new husband Maxim de Winter (Hammer), only to find that Mrs. Danvers is devoted to preserving the house in memory of his late first wife, Rebecca.

On Twitter, news that Scott Thomas is taking on the iconic role is definitely being received warmly.

https://twitter.com/arkhamlibrarian/status/1126659124895342592

https://twitter.com/edd_gosbender/status/1126621925567025157

https://twitter.com/Vampirelinguist/status/1126731135155785728

Ben Wheatley (High-Rise, Free Fire) is directing the new Rebecca from a screenplay by Jane Goldman (the Kingsman movies, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children), notes The Hollywood Reporter. It's a Netflix/Working Title co-production and shooting is due to begin this summer in the U.K. and France.

Rebecca has been adapted for the screen on numerous occasions over the years, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock, whose Oscar-winning 1940 film starred Sir Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, and Dame Judith Anderson.

In the meantime, you can catch Kristin Scott Thomas showing off her comedy chops in the new season of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag, which debuts May 17 on Amazon Prime.

Are you excited to see Kristin Scott Thomas play Mrs Danvers?