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

[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.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

The hair is fab. I looked on her Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Ambrose) and I think the resemblance is striking.

[aella_irene]

...So it is!

[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]

Ya think? ;)

[aella_irene]

Re the Corinthian- perhaps Claudia Black for Piers's mother? She should certainly be someone's strong featured female relative. (She looks enough like PW to be Fanny, but I have always imagined Fanny as blonde and rather cushion-y. Just like Teresa, in fact)

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Yes, I always imagined Fanny blonde too, though I can't imagine how the DNA worked. Unless her mother played the previous Duke false.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Do we know anything about Avon and Fanny's parents other than that their mother was French?

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Not that I can remember. I think the Duchess might have had a temper, but that might be personal canon, or I might be mixing her up with Léonie's aunt who Avon wanted to marry.

[aella_irene]

For some reason, in my head-canon, the previous Duke was very blond, and their mother looked like Charles II, but had had a blonde mother. I should really put that ficlet up...

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

And was the Charles II-lookalike mother actually the daughter of Charles II (can't work out the dates but you'll know if this is feasible) from the wrong side of the sheets?

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

The only dodgy bit on DNA would have been two blonde parents producing a brunette child. Although, apparently even that can happen now.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Also, I want Claudia Black for Deb in Faro's Daughter, even if she does have to wear a red wig. She would be brilliant at the comic bits, and Anne Reid could play her aunt, though I don't know who we'd get in as Ravenscar. Mark Strong, maybe?

Can you think of anyone who could play the Grand Sophy? I can't.

[aella_irene]

Winona Ryder might have the look, and she can certainly do controlling brunettes, (see Abby in The Crucible.)

Romola Garai for Bab.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Winona Ryder is twenty years too old. (As is everyone else I think of.)

Romola Garai as Bab would be fantastic. I would like Jeremy Northam as Colonel Audley, please.

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Yes. But unfortunately she's too old now.

Anna Chancellor would have made a fab Sophy twenty - or even ten - years ago. She's tall, she's lean, but with a good build, she's attractive but not pretty, and even her hair's right.

She would have been perfect.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Yes to Anna Chancellor. If only someone had thought of it in time.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I am willing to let anyone play the Grand Sophy just as long as it isn't Emilia Fox. This is not because I don't care about Sophy, but because I can't stand Fox.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I think Emilia Fox could probably play Julia Oversley and give us all another reason to loathe her.