Colin Firth’s Hollywood stock is rising, especially since he’s a sure thing for this year’s Oscar for Best Actor in Tom Hooper’s The King Speech. Deservedly so, Firth is thrust into the rumor mill with just about any role at his fingertips, including a remake of My Fairy Lady, opposite British it-girl Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go). Hit the jump for more details!
Firth was originally cast aside, no pun intended, in favor of the studio’s choice of Hugh Grant, Firth’s on-screen rival in the Bridget Jones’ Diary films. However, as Firth has been at the center of this awards season’s buzz, he is the most in-demand choice to play the film’s lead, Professor Henry Higgins. Mulligan would reprise the role of Eliza Doolittle, since Keira Knightley has since withdrawn herself from the project, according to The Daily Mail.
Based on the play Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw, the 1964 movie musical starred none other than the timeless Audrey Hepburn and charming Rex Harrison. The original Broadway cast also included Harrison and Julie Andrews (The Sound of Music). Sony Pictures is currently entangled with a lot of legal issues concerning rights over the movie, according to Time, but Mulligan’s schedule is cleared for the project which is set to begin shooting next spring if, and only if, Firth stars.
Muveez.com reports that My Fair Lady is also rumored to be directed by John Madden, an Oscar nominee for Shakespeare in Love. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Shaw’s original story, Wikipedia offers that it “concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so she can pass as a proper lady.”
Mulligan is currently filming Shame, a remake of a Steve McQueen film, in New York with a producer from The King’s Speech. Also, last year’s Oscar nominee for Best Actress is starring in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
According to his IMDB, Firth has a busy lineup with Gambit opposite Cameron Diaz (The Green Hornet), Neil LaBute’s Seconds of Pleasure, Wentworth Miller’s Stoker with Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole) and Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), and the thriller-drama The Promised Land, which is currently in-production.
While Firth seems all sorts of right for the project, and we understand the legitimacy over the twenty-five year age difference between the two rumored leads, which should coincide with the authenticity of the original story… I’m wondering though is there anything that Mulligan can’t do? She already piqued interest with her debut in Pride & Prejudice and impressed Luhrmann for The Great Gatsby. I would really love to see the young actress take one something grittier than watch her follow the well-plotted footsteps of period-piece-princess Knightley.
If any of you have seen the original with Hepburn, what do you think about Mulligan as a contender in this remake? Do you think Firth is the best choice too? Are you tired of hearing about all these remakes and want to see something new and fresh?
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