Casting Heyer

[girlyswot]

callmemadam wonders why Georgette Heyer novels have not made it to the silver screen here. In point of strict fact, I feel obliged to note that The Reluctant Widow was apparently filmed in 1950 but sank without trace (Has anyone seen it? Is it as awful as it is made out to be? The IMDB entry suggests it bore little resemblance to the book.) Still, the field appears to be wide open and since TV and film producers aren't getting round to it, I feel that it is time for my trusty flist to spring into action.

Which Heyers would you most like to see filmed? And what would be your ideal cast?

Comments

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I'll start. *g*

I really, really want someone to film The Masqueraders. I just think that if you could pull off the first few scenes it would be amazing to watch. I envisage actual gasps in the cinema as the audience realise what's happening.

I'd cast James McAvoy as Robin. Not sure for Prudence but possibly, though with a slight grimace, Keira Knightley might do it. Needs to be someone with a slim figure and no discernable bosom. Also tall. She'd have to work on her actual acting though.

[aella_irene]

How tall is James McAvoy? I think he might be a bit tall for Robin.

The start would be wonderful, yes.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

5' 7"

I think he could get away with it, especially if they cast a fairly tall Prudence.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I'm having trouble thinking of anyone with enough presence to play the man-mountain.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I was hoping that frankie_ecap would come along and tell us who he should be.

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Actually, there are quite a lot of actors who could. Hugh Jackman, for example, if he could pull of the accent.

Daniel Craig, if he's tall enough.

[(Anonymous)]

Hugh Jackman as Sir Anthony Fanshawe? Hmm, not sure I can see that. He's not quite placid enough for me. Nor Daniel Craig. You need someone who can do the lazy eyebrow look.

[aella_irene]

These Old Shades!

With Lauren Ambrose as Leonie, and Peter Wingfield as the Duke.

And The Corinthian, which would probably work quite well, being relatively short, and having an adventure plot. (I have been known to lie in bed planning my ideal screenplay. It would begin with the camera panning across Regency London, slowly focusing upon the home of Sir Richard Wyndham, where his mother, sister and brother-in-law are confronting the butler. The first spoken line would be "Sir Richard, my Lady, is not at home." Great attention would be paid to costumes. It would be a mini-series, each episode a good two hours long, with the first ending at the coach accident.)

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I have been known to lie in bed planning my ideal screenplay.
I would just like to reassure you that this is perfectly normal behaviour.

It would be a mini-series, each episode a good two hours long
Of course it would. ;)

[aella_irene]

Two hours is necessary! It has a highly complex plot! Also, if they were any shorter, it would have to end at the meeting of Richard and Pen, and people would complain.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I was not complaining. ;)

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Also, I had never heard of Lauren Ambrose but I googled her and she looks like you! She would make a lovely Leonie.

[aella_irene]

She has that slightly pointy chin, and her hair is perfect, especially here. I do not see a resemblance, myself, but then I never do.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

and Peter Wingfield as the Duke

Yes, this. I had to Google Lauren Ambrose, but she looks as if she could do 'elfin' without being irritatingly porcelain-perfect, which is a good start on the way to playing a Léonie I didn't want to punch in the mouth.

[aella_irene]

I typed that, and thought, I wonder if ankaret has a rader for his name?

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I want The Unknown Ajax with Sean Bean as Hugo. I do not care that he doesn't have the appropriate looks; I know he can do both 'cares for his family, who are driving him completely loco' and 'being Northern, and having been in the 95th Rifles' really well. :) Though alas, he's probably both too starry and too old these days.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes!!! He would sort them all out good and proper.

[aella_irene]

Oh, yes. And Vincent and Claude should look alike, but Vincent should be much, much darker. I think of Claude as blond.

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Naw, I want Hugh Jackman as Hugo. I've had him as my mental image of Hugo for the past decade. That comforting solidity, the ability to look thick as pigshit but not actually be stupid...

To be honest, based on my other comments, I think Hugh Jackman epitomises my ideal big Heyer hero.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I can't really see him as any of them - it's probably something to do with that dire movie he made with Meg Ryan in which he played a time-travelling duke.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

The first time I saw Hugh Jackman was in Oklahoma at the National Theatre and so I do have difficulty imagining him as anything much other than a cowboy. Not that that is a bad thing, but it's not really a Heyer hero.

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

I have seen the film of The Reluctant Widow. At least I had it on and paid occasional attention to it. It was pretty awful. It isn't a book I'm fond of so I haven't read it for ages so I am in the position of not being able really to remember either book or film very well. In the film the hero (I can't even remember his name) was an army officer who got court-marshalled for spying but this all turned out to be an elaborate hoax to force the real spy out into the open. I suppose WW2 was too recent for it to be conceivable that they could make a film set in wartime but the hero not be in the forces. I suggest you continue in not having seen it.

I don't know which I'd like to see filmed.

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Heyer hated the film of The Reluctant Widow, and her son (who only died recently) did so too, so there have been no licensings subsequent to that.

Which is a shame, since a lot of Heyer novels would work nicely in the two-part two-hour episode formats that ITV do so well (so basically a four-hour adaptation).

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I assume that the simple reason that Heyer hasn't been filmed is that she is off the radar of a lot of the types of people who commission dramas, and that even when she comes on to it, she is dismissed as "Oh, only middle-aged women would watch that." Remember, TV exectutives were completely taken aback at the success of the first series of "Lark Rise to Candleford" - they didn't see that there was a large audience for a well-written, well-acted, well-produced, relatively gentle but not soporiric Sunday evening drama...

Adaptations...

[(Anonymous)]

I work for Wordcandy.net, and we recently contacted the English press agency who handles the rights to Heyer's stuff. According to the man I spoke with, the only thing stopping a Heyer adaptation is the fact that most producers believe there wouldn't be a market for one.

Behold:
http://wordcandybooks.blogspot.com/2009/03/georgette-heyers-film-adaptations.html

Clearly, the producers are insane, but there you have it...