Danny Boyle Puts Teen Assassin On The Backburner For My Fair Lady?
There's been a whole lot of Danny Boyle in the news these last couple of weeks and now, I'm afraid to say, here comes another lump. Open up.
Rumors bubbling up at the EW Hollywood Insider blog suggest that Danny Boyle is closing in on a remake of My Fair Lady. This rehash already has a script, penned by Emma Thompson, and will once again be a musical. I suspect a lot of /Film readers will be disappointed to read that Boyle's desire to net the Lady gig will see him shelving Hanna, a more readily geek-appealing story of a teenage assassin.
All I really know about Hanna is in that previous sentence. Got anything else to add? Not sure how a teen assassin would work. Well, outside of Leon/The Professional anyway. Would love to find out.
Late last year, Knightley was considering the role of Eliza Dolittle in Lady – as per Anne Thompson. No idea if she's still in orbit, but if I were her agent I'd pat myself on the back for the Never Let Me Go contract and throw myself down the stairs for getting her in talks for My Fair Lady. It sounds like a joke, a parody – Keira Knightley as Eliza Dolittle, brought to you by French and Saunders. And not even for Comic Relief this time.
The original My Fair Lady is hardly one of my favourites, but George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, the original original, is pretty darn fly-free and could prove a solid guide for any future attempt to tell the tale, singalong or not.
Emma Thompson's script for Sense and Sensibility seemed a lot better before Andrew Davies had a go at one himself for the BBC, but I'm still pretty keen on it. Nanny McPhee... no. Not keen on that at all. But I'm reckoning she's got the stuff to do a fair take on Lady.