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Note: Nothing listed on this page has been officially announced
by a studio or production
company and should therefore not be considered in production or a certainty to even be made.
company and should therefore not be considered in production or a certainty to even be made.
4/29/13: deadline.com (by Mike Fleming)
Colin Firth In Talks For Male Lead In Woody Allen’s Next: After locking in Emma Stone as the female lead, Woody Allen is in talks with Colin Firth to play the male lead in his next film. The untitled pic will shoot in the South of France...Firth separately is attached to star in The Secret Service, the next film by X-Men: First Class helmer Matthew Vaughn for Fox, but he is carving out room in his schedule to work for the Woodman.
Should shoot this year.
4/29/13: The Hollywood Reporter (by Borys Kit)
Although Colin has not signed on the dotted line, he is in talks to appear as Uncle Jack. The nephew has not yet been cast.
4/20/13: Movie Nation (by Roger Moore)
While doing press for the US release of Arthur Newman, Colin told Movie Nation: “My next film, which I can’t say much about, is with Matthew Vaughn. No, it’s not science fiction. But I’m sure there’s a bit about it out there in the public domain, on the Internet.”
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The project is based on a comic book series by Mark Millar, The hardcover first book of the series is being released on May 28th in the UK (preorder from amazon uk) and July 2nd in the US (preorder from amazon).
The synopsis from amazon: “The world’s greatest secret agent is on the most exciting case of his career. But will the end of the world as know it take a back seat to training his street-punk nephew to be the next James Bond? meanwhile, what’s the secret link between a series of kidnapped sci-fi stars, the murder of an entire town, and a dark secret from inside Mount Everest? Under Uncle Jack’s supervision, Gary’s spy skills and confidence blossom—but when the duo learn what’s behind the celebrity kidnappings, the knowledge comes at a price. The conspiracy begins to unravel, but who can be trusted?”
The story opens with the kidnapping of real-life actor Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), who reportedly has agreed to do the cameo.
Filming is set to begin in August 2013 and the lead (Uncle Jack) has been cast. Fox will distribute the film in November 14, 2014.
1/07/13: Daily Mail (by Baz Bamigboye)
Watch out for...Colin Firth, who is in final negotiations to star with Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel and Celia Imrie in the sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel...Ol Parker is writing the screenplay for the follow-up, and the hope is that Madden will be able to shoot in India later in the year, if cast members are ready for their next adventure.
12/18/12: Collider.com (by Christina Radish)
In
an interview, writer Ol Parker said that, while no deals
had been done, he has started work on the script. When asked about the
addition
of Colin and Helen Mirren to the cast, he replied, “I don’t know how
that got
out. Yes and no. There’s no script. They’re both friends of John’s
[Madden] and
they’ve both worked with John before, but there’s no script, so it’s
wildly
premature to talk about other people.” However, “I will now be writing
for
Colin Firth and Helen Mirren. I wrote this film with Judi and Maggie in
mind,
very consciously. It was a very deliberate thing. I tried to write
roles that
would snare them. I do that, in general, even if you know you’re never
going to
get them. It helps me personalize or give voice to a character.”
"...a sequel is in the works. My sources say that both Helen Mirren and Colin Firth are likely additions to the cast. Also, they say that director John Madden and writer Ol Parker are looking for an American actress possibly to round out the cast....the “Best Marigold” sequel will continue the adventures of Dench et al in India. There was discussion of taking the group somewhere else. But in the end it was decided they would stay in India afrer all."
5/19/12: deadline.com (by Nancy Tartaglione)
Tthe screenplay, by Willy Holtzman, sees the quintessential Englishman invited to perform a cabaret act in the Inn after Liberace takes a spill and has to cancel. Owing the UK government a fair bit in taxes, Coward accepts the $30,000 offer. The story chronicles the two-week engagement and Coward’s relationship with his agent and the piano teacher who becomes his accompaniest.
5/19/12: The Hollywood Reporter (by Georg Szalai)
Colin Firth has signed up to star as Noel Coward in BiteSize Entertainment’s dramedy Mad Dogs and Englishmen, the story of Coward’s two weeks at The Desert Inn in Las Vegas in 1955. Willy Holtzman is writing the screenplay.
There is no start date set for the production, which is currently looking to select a director.
5/12/12: The Hollywood Reporter (by Scott Roxborough)
Rupert Everett has written the script and will direct a film about Oscar Wilde's final days. Everett will star as Wilde and Colin Firth is to play his friend and confidant Reginald "Reggie" Turner. Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson and Edward Fox are also attached.
Shooting is planned for Summer 2013. Germany’s cine plus and Bavaria Pictures, Brit production company Robert Fox and Bavaria Media Italia will produce. Concorde will release the film in Germany.
10/13/11: AFP
The film focuses on the life of the flamboyant 19th century Irish poet and writer in Paris when he went into exile after leaving prison. It will take place in Naples, Paris, London and the north of France.
He said he had now found producers and hoped to make the film next year.
10/1709: The Observer (by Jason Solomons)
I hear Rupert Everett has written a brilliant script about the last days of Oscar Wilde in Paris. His friend Colin Firth says it's one of the wittiest and most moving he's ever read, much the same qualities that attracted him to his current starring role, in Tom Ford's warmly received film A Single Man.
04/08/13: Showbizz411 (Roger Friedman)
Streisand and Blanchett are no longer involved in the project; Streisand is pursuing her own film about the couple. The original screenwriter Linda Yellen has two other producing partners, financing for the film and has cast Rachel Weisz in the Bourke-White role. The project is looking for a director now.
02/09/13: Variety (by Robert Mitchell)
While no details have been released, Barbra Streisand has signed a deal to direct with Aldamisa International (producers) and financing provided by Kilburn Media. Streisand is contemplating several projects.
06/21/12: Showbiz411 (Roger Friedman)
Barbra Streisand has agreed to direct “Skinny and Cat,” an epic love story about writer Erskine Caldwell and photojournalist Margaret Bourke White. Colin Firth and Cate Blanchett are officially attached, and Linda Yellen is producing from a script she wrote. The film will be independently financed, with CAA putting together the package.
The film has a go date for January 2013.
6/14/12: Los Angeles Times
Streisand said she will turn her attention to another $20 million project that has proved harder to finance - a script she wrote more than 25 years ago and intends to direct about the romance between photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White and writer Erskine Caldwell, with Cate Blanchett and Colin Firth attached to star.
"This is hard to raise money for?" Streisand said. "I'm just in shock. Hollywood has changed so much. It's about a woman ahead of her time. It's just a fascinating story that is very relevant to today. I may have to pick up the phone again."
8/0212: The Hollywood Reporter (by Borys Kit)
The Twilight star's involvement is only an attachment at this point because the project is not financed and has no start date. Sources say financing likely will hinge on the casting of the male lead. Oscar winner Colin Firth was attached to the part at one point, but that is no longer the case, according to sources.
8/02/12: Washington Post Celebritology (by Jen Chaney)
But a source close to the production reports that Stewart’s casting is premature, issuing the following statement: “While it’s exciting to see all the interest the project is generating, the film is still in the pre-production process and no offers to cast have been made as of yet.”
Stewart’s agent, Ken Kaplan, echoed the sentiments in that statement via e-mail tonight. “This movie is at a very early stage,” he wrote. “It is unfinanced and while Kristen is ‘attached’ to play the role, there is no guarantee that, if the movie gets made, she will actually do the role. All of the reporting on this is extremely premature.”
In other words, Stewart may still star in “Lie Down in Darkness,” but it’s not close to a done deal yet.
8/2/12: Vulture (by Claude Brodesser-Akner)
Exclusive: Kristen Stewart has landed the lead role of Peyton Loftis in this as-yet unfinanced indie production to be directed by Scott Cooper. Darkness has been in development for years by producer Jeff Sharp.
Set in genteel 1950s Virginia, Peyton is a member of a dysfunctional and disintegrating family, and is constantly compared to her crippled sister, Maudie. Her intense physical beauty makes her the object of her frigid mother’s jealous hatred and the target of her father’s incestuous, alcoholic lust.
2/02/11: The Tracking Board
Colin Firth in talks for Lie Down in Darkness. Many unconfirmed reports that he and Daniel Day-Lewis are "vying" for the role.
2/03/13: The Hollywood Reporter (by Pamela McClintock)
At the European Film Market in Berlin, The Weinstein Co bought the rights for the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Other territorial sales announced: Mars in France, Central Partnership in C.I.S., Revolutionary Releasing in Poland, Paradiso Film in Benelux, LEV Cinemas in Israel, Italia Film International in the Middle East, Mis Label Aps in Scandinavia, Elite Film AG in Switzerland, Sun Distribution Group in Mexico, Edko Film Ltd. in Hong Kong, Gaga in Japan, Shaw in Singapore, Dreamwest Pictures in South Korea, Studio Solutions Group in Taiwan, and Ster Kinekor Entertainment in South Africa. (The sale to Telepool and Senator in Germany was previously announced.)
Michael Grandage hopes to begin filming in early 2014.
6/19/12: Variety (by Rachel Abrams)
The Weinstein Co. is in early talks with Michael Grandage to direct "Genius," the story of legendary New York book editor Max Perkins. The film would be his feature directorial debut, with preproduction expected in 2013.
"Genius" is an adaptation of A. Scott Berg's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography "Max Perkins: Editor of Genius" that has been adapted by Tony winner Josh Logan. Perkins discovered and oversaw books from some of the greatest writers of the 20th century, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Tom Wolfe.
While several actors have been floated to star, no actors are currently attached to the project.
2/27/12: Newsweek (by Peggy Noonan)
In an interview for Newsweek, Harvey Weinstein stated "he will do a movie about Max Perkins, the legendary literary editor, with Colin Firth as Perkins and Michael Fassbender as Thomas Wolfe. 'I make that movie, I don’t make the movie about James Bond.' "
6/18/12: NY Post Page Six (by Emily Smith)
Buzz is building over who will take on the role that won Omar Sy the French equivalent of a Best Actor Oscar. We hear stars circling the role in the Weinstein Co. film include Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx and Idris Elba from “The Wire.” Sources say “Lawless” star Jessica Chastain and Michelle Williams of “My Week With Marilyn” are in the mix for the female lead.
3/29/12: Variety (by Jeff Sneider and Rachel Abrams)
"Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig is in early negotiations to direct and Colin Firth is in early talks to star in "Untouchable," The Weinstein Company's English-language remake of Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache's French box office hit "The Intouchables."
While there's no script yet, Feig has an offer to tackle the potential awards contender, while Firth has met on the project and is circling to land the coveted lead role. TWC is expected to hire a writer shortly.
"Intouchables" producer Nicolas Duval-Adassovsky will return for the remake, which is eyeing a fall start date.
6/19/12: Mumbai Mirror (by Subhash K Jha)
Gurinder Chadha is all set to begin shooting her next, a film on partition, in Delhi-Jodhpur in October this year. The film revolves round Lord Mountbatten, and Colin Firth or Michael Fassbender are being considered for the role. The director said, "this is my biggest challenge till date. I've been working on my partition film for some time now. The central character is Mountbatten. The movie is set in January 1947, when Mountbatten was asked to oversee India, and it ends in August 1947 so it's a brief time span. But it's a huge canvas requiring loads of research and scores of characters. I've spoken to some people including Naseer and Saif. Nehru's role is a cameo, so I wonder if Saif will be willing to do it. And yes, I want my Bhaji on the Beach actress Zohra Sehgal to be part of the film."
Chadha has acquired the necessary permissions to shoot everywhere in India, including Rashtrapati Bhavan, and expects to start lensing in October.
Buy book at amazon.com or amazon uk
2/20/13: USA Today (by Elysa Gardner)
In conjunction with the release of his new book, Clive Davis stated that he is planning to mount a Broadway revival of My Fair Lady with Anne Hathaway and Colin Firth, now that the movie has fallen through.
This project will involve theater veterans Roger Berlind, Scott Landis and the Nederlander Organization, and Davis' top choice for a director is Bartlett Sher, the Tony Award winner whose Broadway credits include acclaimed revivals of such American classics as South Pacific, Joe Turner's Come and Gone and, this season, Golden Boy.
8/21/11: The Telegraph (by Richard Egan)
Mandrake hears that the actor [Colin Firth] has told Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Duncan Kenworthy that he will play Professor Henry Higgins to Carey Mulligan’s Eliza Doolittle in their remake of My Fair Lady. “He is keen,” says an associate.
The script for the musical has been written by Emma Thompson. As with Firth’s role in The King’s Speech, his part was offered, but rejected, by Hugh Grant.
Kenworthy is coy. “It’s in the planning stages, so it’s not the time to talk about casting,” he tells me. Keira Knightley took singing lessons to play Eliza before Mulligan was cast.
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This project has been under development for several years, with nothing certain except that Emma Thompson really wanted someone named Hugh (Laurie and then Grant) to play Henry Higgins and she pronounced 'Audrey Hepburn...twee, mumsy and really couldn't act'. The highly publicized power struggles and personnel changes have played out more like an episode of the miniseries Rome. I'll attempt to summarize.
With the project's first director (Danny Boyle) came Keira Knightley (really is she any better than the "twee" Audrey Hepburn?). While Emma Thompson told anyone and everyone that she wanted Hugh Grant for Higgins, apparently the director wanted Daniel Day-Lewis but could not tempt him (I always thought he had good judgment). Exit KK. Then Working Title snagged John Madden (director of Shakespeare in Love) and Carey Mulligan. Other names bandied about have been director Joe Wright, Daniel Craig, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Gemma Arterton and Emily Blunt. From all printed reports, John Madden took issue with the possibility that Grant might be his leading man and departed for awhile. Evidently, Colin is an acceptable compromise.
9/12/11: Bleeding Cool (by Brendon Connelly)
The Daily Mail reported last week that Gary Oldman was looking to get back in the director’s chair for an undisclosed remake and that Colin Firth was going to take a role....Here’s the quote from Oldman: "I think I’m gonna do something with Colin Firth. It was something I’d been thinking about for a while, I can’t say what it is, but it’s a remake, and when I worked with Colin I thought: here’s the guy to do it with."
Bleeding Cool’s very own Hannah Shaw Williams has just been speaking to Colin...She asked about the Oldman project, and Firth was quick to point out how the Mail had gotten things wrong. "Slight misreporting on that one...We do want to work together though I don’t think we’re quite ready to say what it is, but if it does go forward then we’ll let everyone know about it...It’s not a directing job on his part, it’s something for us both to act in. He directed one film brilliantly and I’d love to work with him in that capacity but this is to act together."
Joe Dante has revealed that he and Colin Firth have teamed up to make a biopic about legendary B-movie director Roger Corman. Dante, who began his movie career working with Corman, said that his comedy will be based around the making of Corman's 1967 drama The Trip.
"Roger's a great guy. I have a project about him, a movie called The Man With The Kaleidoscope Eyes about Roger Corman making The Trip," written by Jack Nicholson about a TV commercials director (Peter Fonda) who takes LSD while in the midst of a divorce. Corman, Nicholson, Fonda and co-star Dennis Hopper famously all took the drug in preparation for the movie. The Trip was a precursor to Hopper's 1969's counterculture classic Easy Rider, which featured Fonda and Nicholson in starring roles.
On casting the cult director, Dante added: "Colin Firth wants to play Roger, so we're looking around for funding."
6/22/12: Entertainmentwise.com (by Mark Worgan)
Sally Phillips, who played Shazzer, said: "It was due to shoot in August, then I was told it was delayed till September, then I was told it was delayed till October and I was having a baby at the end of October, so I was nervous, and then they said don't worry it's starting in November and I was like still, for me that was worse because either I'm going to be 9 months pregnant, or I'm just going to be fat. Either of those are bad, and then it was postponed till January, and then we had a call saying it was postponed indefinitely."
When asked about her thoughts on another film she said: "Yeah I am excited about it, I get on very well, an I think the people who play the friends in those films have the best time." Phillips added: "you can be any weight, you just sit in your caravan and I just talk to James Callis (Tom) who's one of the...funniest men alive, just sit and talk to him while they film all the difficult stuff and occasionally they just sort of wheel us in to look surprised. So I love doing it, and I'd love to do another one, but soon please because I'm ageing quite a lot faster than Renee."
2/04/12: Script problems cause delays
With the internet buzzing about Hugh Grant's refusal to start work on the film this month, Working Title Films took the unprecedented step of issuing a press release to say script issues were being addressed (please, sirs, no Richard Curtis!) and that the start would likely be pushed back to the fall of 2012. (Take your time....another decade or two?)
BTW, Hugh isn't taking the entire blame for the delay. The next day, his rep said: “Hugh is keen that Bridget Jones 3 happens, but Renee [Zellweger], Colin [Firth] and he all have some issue with the present script. They are hoping to help work them out.” Right...
10/05/11: Deadline.com (by Mike Fleming)
Universal Pictures and Working Title Films will need a new director for Bridget Jones 3, and I hear they want a Brit. Paul Feig has withdrawn after developing the most recent draft of the script with the intention to direct. I’m told that both sides agreed it didn’t work out and that maybe this is just a quintessential British comedy that needs a British sensibility. They will set a director soon as they are still slated to start production in January, with Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant all eager to return.
5/27/11: Hollywoodcrush (by Amy Wilkinson)
Helen is working on a third Bridget novel and has turned to an unlikely source for inspiration: Twitter.
A self-professed Twitter-avoider, Helen finally joined the social networking site as part of a Comic Relief benefit in which celebrities' first follows were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Helen quickly realized, though, that 140-word missives were a great writing exercise while penning her latest tome.
"I discovered that through doing Twitter—I was a bit blocked with the book and it just put me back in touch with who the readers are," Helen told us from her home in London. "You can sort of talk to people and see them react to your stuff."
As for how all of these tweets will be integrated into her latest work, Helen isn't sure of the specifics, but she did say that recurring themes from her tweets will likely seep into her novel. "To give an example, I've got a thing going with technology," she said. "She's always getting fed up with trying to operate the remote control or the password or how to turn on the tap. She goes to the restaurant bathroom and feels like she's spending three days waving her hands in front of toilets and wash basins and just can't figure out how to turn the tap on. It's all very modern. So I think things like that are sort of themes.
"And I'm also sort of trying to work a plot out with Mark on there, as well," she continued. "But it's quite hard because you can't get that much dialogue. But little bits of dialogue come up. Like, there's a thing where he's in Libya at the moment, and she got it mixed up with Liberia. Those you can see you can work into a bigger conversation."
The exact plot of the novel is still coming together, but Helen said that it will likely involve Bridget "struggling with the baby thing," and that Mark will be her main love interest (though Daniel will be loitering about as usual).
"It's hard to pull these things together," she said of the long-gestating film. "There are so many people involved. I think they are sort of moving towards it now. It's definitely taking shape now, and it would be so much fun if they all came back and did it. You know, Colin has won an Oscar now. No pressure or anything."
Read full article here
5/26/11: E! Online (by Marc Malkin)
Per Helen Fielding, a third Bridget Jones book and movie are still in the works. The author has been tweeting as her literary alter ego (@bridgetjoneshf) as well as @markdarcylegal, @danielcleaverxx and @richardfinch.
"I've been working on it," Fielding tells me from her home in London. "You know, the challenge is to make it really good, because I've waited a long time before doing anything else with Bridget...I want it to be quite honest and mean something and be really good and funny."
Fielding chooses her words quite carefully when I ask if Zellweger should reprise the role. "These are all very delicate areas...which I really mustn't talk about," she said. "But I think all the actors playing the parts in the movies were fantastic and it would be wonderful if they would again. But they've all done very well and they don't need to do another film, so it would have to be a really good script for them to want to do it."
Fielding continues to work on a staged musical adaptation of Bridget with Brit songstress Lily Allen. "We have done one workshop," she said. "It takes a long time for a musical. But it's fun and joyful, and I think with Lily's songs it's a perfect marriage."
Read full article here
5/20/11: Press Association
Hugh Grant and Oscar winner Colin Firth reignited their on-screen rivalry to fuel a bidding war at a charity auction for a walk-on part in the next movie. Their competing bids helped to push the price of the part up to £55,000, paid by an unnamed bidder.
Hugh (who was not present) put in an opening bid for £10,000 prior to the auction, while Colin, who arrived straight from shooting new film Gambit, bid in person against Hugh on the phone, until the winning price was reached.
The auction was to raise money for broadcaster Mariella Frostrup's new GREAT Initiative, which she launched with a glamorous party and dinner at the Corinthia Hotel London.
3/2/11: Londoner's Diary (The Evening Standard)
Bridget Jones opens up her diary again
Stock up on the Chardonnay — Bridget Jones is back. Her creator Helen Fielding has finally begun writing the third instalment of the best-selling diaries. Fielding read three pages of new Bridget Jones material at Damian Barr’s Literary Salon at Shoreditch House last night, to hoots of mirth from the audience, and confirmed that, 10 years after The Edge of Reason, the third book was under way. There has been mounting speculation that a third film is also in the works, with reports that Renée Zellweger, who played the lead, would sign up only if she didn’t have to pile on the pounds. But in November the actress said there couldn’t be another movie without the book first. Fielding confirms that there have also been discussions about the next film. “I will be working on both the book and the film but I don’t know if they are the same thing yet. It’s not been decided.” One of the themes, said Fielding, will be Bridget having a mid-thirties baby crisis. Her first two books, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, sold 15 million copies between them, and the two films took more than £300 million at the box office. Whether Hugh Grant will reprise his role as the dastardly Daniel Cleaver is uncertain but Colin Firth seems quite amenable to a return as Mark Darcy. “I think the idea of Mark and Daniel and Bridget in advanced stages of deterioration could be quite fun,” Firth told the BBC last month. “We’re making a comedy, after all.”
7/15/09: Working Title has only confirmed that the project is in development, "in the very early stages." There are no actors attached and no director or writer.
7/14/09: Variety (by Ali Jaafar)
It is rumored that Working Title is developing a third installment of the "Bridget Jones" series starring Renee Zellweger.
The untitled [ha!] third "Bridget Jones" pic, which is still in its early stages and probably won't go into production until the end of next year, will see Zellweger reprise her role as a British publishing exec struggling to find love. It will likely be based on the weekly columns author Helen Fielding wrote in 2005 for British newspaper the Independent in which Bridget, now in her 40s, attempts to have a baby before it's too late.
Working Title co-toppers Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan have yet to set a writer or director.
At the Mumbai Film Festival, Hudson was interviewed. He told DNAindia: “I have been doing a lot of things. But finance is a lot of problem.” His film based on Homage to Catalania [sic] also didn’t work out, despite boasting a star cast of Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. Hudson stated that “the cast was too old for the producers. That’s why it didn’t work out.”
5/19/09: Variety (by Pamela McClintock and John Hopewell)
Arclight Films is repping this film at the Cannes market. Hugh Hudson will direct the adaptation of George Orwell's book, with Colin Firth and Kevin Spacey attached to star.
Orwell's book revolves around the real-life story of how he and his wife Eileen traveled to Barcelona to fight Stalinism. There, Orwell joined the Anarchist brigade and fought in the Spanish Civil War. Film will highlight the relationship between Orwell (Colin) and Georges Kopp (Spacey), the charismatic Belgian commander of the brigade.
Filming is scheduled for the first half of 2010 in England, Spain and then Buenos Aires and Montevideo, Uruguay.
Order book from amazon us or amazon uk.
Shooting is targeted for April 2008.
Order book from amazon us or amazon uk or a German language edition available at amazon uk
8/07/07: Attached to star in Michael Lesslie's adaptation of Brian Moore’s Booker-prize nominated novel. They hope to start filming in late 2007.
Synopsis: Michael Dillon's literary aspirations vanished when he became the manager of a small hotel; he thinks of himself as "a failed poet in a business suit." Married to a shrewish, dependent woman, he has just decided to leave her and move to London with his lover, a young Canadian woman, when he is swept into Northern Ireland's daily violence. A group of IRA thugs invades his home and holds his wife hostage while Michael is directed to plant a bomb that will kill a Protestant minister. Seamlessly turning what begins as a drama of domestic unhappiness into a chilling thriller, Moore engages Michael in a moral dilemma: whether to risk his wife's safety but save countless other lives by informing the police of the bomb ticking in his car. Once made, Michael's decision leads to yet more excruciating choices, escalating the tension in a narrative that mirrors the conflict which neither camp can win. As he depicts the passions on both sides of the civil war, Moore excoriates both "Protestant prejudice and Catholic cant," deploring the ceaseless conflict in "this British Province founded on inequality and sectarian hate." If the novel seems, in retrospect, perhaps a little contrived, readers will remain riveted as it hurtles to an inevitable, cleverly plotted conclusion.
Although Stanley Tucci has his hands full playing a neurosurgeon on his new "3 Lbs." series, he is not neglecting his big screen career. He's preparing to direct a film in England once "3 Lbs." wraps for the season—"A Small Wonder." "It takes place in the early part of the 19th century, about a very depressed town that comes to believe the end of the world is near. It's sort of a romantic fable/comedy," he says. Colin Firth is already aboard to star.
11/17/06: halife.com by Eirik Knutsen
A third feature film collaboration between the two [Stanley Tucci and Tony Shaloub] last year was scrubbed when the funding fell through. With lots of luck and some finesse, Tucci hopes to direct his next film, "Small Wonder," in England next year during hiatus from "3 Lbs." "I'm prepping for the shoot now, meanwhile staying home and making good money to free me up financially," he says. The cast already includes Emily Blount and Colin Firth.
Rachel Weisz, Ian McKellen and Susan Sarandon have joined Colin Firth in "The Colossus," a colonial drama set in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century, to be directed by Sean Mathias. The project, being sold worldwide by the Little Film Co., is expected to shoot this fall.
Based on Ann Harries' novel "Manly Pursuits," $15 million pic was written by Mathias and Myer Taub, and produced by Lisa Katselas.
"The Colossus" is a fictionalized version of real events. It's the story of ornithologist Francis Wills (Firth), who is hired to transport English songbirds to recently deposed South African prime minister Cecil Rhodes (McKellen). Wills falls in love with a firebrand political activist (Weisz) and becomes entangled in a plot to stop the imminent Boer War.
Minerva has pre-bought Italian rights to "The Colossus."
Ian McKellan's Cannes blog for 5/16/06 - Project is in the early stages of development
"It starts well enough with a full hot breakfast. I am travelling with my old friend Sean Mathias, who will be raising funds for his next film “Colossus” in which I am slated to play Cecil Rhodes, the 19th century adventurer who opened up southern Africa to European interests."
Italian distributor Istituto Luce is currently lining up a Euros 20m noir-thriller entitled La Fenice. The film, which will be entirely set in Venice, is expected to star Colin Firth and Peter O’Toole, and will start shooting in January 2006. It is being planned as a UK-Italian-French co-production
5/18/09:
The Hollywood Reporter (by Steven Zeichik) Indie banner Green Knight Ventures will produce a contemporary adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic story "The Fall of the House of Usher"...Green Knight is behind Colin Firth crime thriller "The Meat Trade." The Little Film Co. is repping sales of the project in the Cannes market.
11/10/08: The Scotsman (Tim Cornwell)
Don't look for this movie to be made anytime in the near future, as Robert Carlyle stated it has no financing.
"One casualty was The Meat Trade, the Scottish follow-up to Trainspotting, which has him and Colin Firth on board as stars, but is 'dragging its heels', he said....Carlyle said he was struggling to understand what was holding up The Meat Trade, but he added: 'It's an all-round problem. There's no money anywhere to make anything. It's stupid at the moment to complain about it because everybody is in the s*** in various different ways.' "
4/03/08: Daily Star (Amy Watts and Charlie Morgan
If "JOHNNY Borrell will be brutally murdered next week so his organs can be sold on the global transport market," then The Meat Trade must begin shooting imminently.
Also, "Samantha Morton...takes on the role of Mr B’s prostitute girlfriend."
10/31/07: Billboard (by Gary Graff)
[Johnny] Borrell [of the British band Razorlight]...is preparing to make his film debut in "The Meat Trade," a British drama starring Colin Firth and Robert Carlyle. "I play the boyfriend of the leading lady, who I'm not sure they've actually cast or not," Borrell says. "We're filming around Christmas time, or just after. I expect it will be quite fun."
8/20/07: Empire (by Alan Morrison)
During a Q&A at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Irvine Welsh mentioned a couple of other films on his future slate, according to Empire magazine. "First up is The Meat Trade, an original screenplay about a modern-day Burke and Hare duo in Edinburgh who murder people in order to illegally sell their organs. Robert Carlyle and Colin Firth are attached, with Antonia Bird directing."
5/09/07: indielondon.co.uk interview
Robert Carlisle: It’s going into production in the autumn. He’s had it for a couple of years. Are you familiar with Burke and Hare? The two immigrants in the 1860s in Edinburgh who were infamous for body snatching? They started off with people who’d been hung and they’d take the bodies to Edinburgh University for dissection. But they got sloppier and sloppier and eventually what they were doing was digging up bodies of people that had been buried and eventually killed people themselves. I think they killed 32 or 33 people. This is a modern day take on that. The element that’s interesting is about kidney transplants. Colin Firth will play the head of an organ clinic in Edinburgh. My guy is the Burke and Hare guy. [meaning that Colin is not playing one of the bodysnatchers, but only a supporting role.]
5/05/07: The Northern Echo
"The film, also starring Colin Firth as the head of an organ clinic in Edinburgh, is scheduled to go into production in the autumn."
5/12/05: Variety (Adam Dawtrey)
Robert Carlyle and Colin Firth will star in Antonia Bird's "The Meat Trade," with an original screenplay by "Trainspotting" novelist Irvine Welsh. The Works is handling international sales on the gothic horror comedy, which is in pre-production.
Set in Edinburgh, it's a contemporary reworking of the crimes of the 19th century bodysnatchers Burke and Hare. This notorious duo made a living robbing graves to provide doctors with cadavers for experimentation. When the supply of corpses dried up, they started killing tramps.
"The Meat Trade" is produced by David Aukin and Mark Cousins for 4Way Pictures, the prodco of Bird, Carlyle, Cousins and Welsh.
Additional details: Scottish Screen provided £25,000 in development money. Project first surfaced at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
8/14/10: An exclusive in NY Magazine revealed that filming on Toyer is to start in late fall 2010 and into early winter in Venice. No information (new or otherwise) on cast provided.
10/4/06: According to De Palma al a Mod, De Palma will be shooting The Untouchables prequel in summer 2007. There's no definite date for Toyer. If he can get it organized, the shoot would have to start in January 2007, but he did not commit to that. Read entire interview here.
10/17/05: From firth.com's inside source, filming to begin in the spring of 2006, with location work in Venice. After a break, it will pick up again in May at other locations.
11/26/04: Entertainment Weekly: The one project tempting him is Brian De Palma’s thriller Toyer, about a womanizer who also happens to be a lobotomizer. “It’s about as dark as it gets,” he says. “I met with [De Palma] and we both said, “Let’s do it when we are both ready.”
4/4/04: De Palma adapted the story from Gardner McKay's two-act play, not the pulp novel published in 1998. It would not be set in Los Angeles.
2/14/05 Screendaily: Marc Evans announced as new director (to replace Bruce Beresford), though he is expected to direct another film before The Dead Wait.
11/02/04: Continued attempts to finance this project, with Bruce Beresford directing and starring Colin and James McAvoy (Wimbledon, Bright Young Things, State of Play)
5/13/04: Project marketed at Cannes film market for potential sales/backers. Names attached: director Bruce Beresford and co-stars Firth and James McAvoy.
5/19/03: New film announced at Cannes film market. with Colin Firth to star and to be directed by Jens Meurer (no longer involved).
