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

[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.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I thought it was the rule that all French characters in Heyer novels must have a temper?

[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?

[aella_irene]

Yes. (At least, she is in after_waterloo). It works, if you take An Infamous Army and work backwards instead of trying to make These Old Shades and Devil's Cub tally with everything else.

[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.

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

Jeremy Northam could play any number of Heyer heroes. Not quite all of them but a significant number.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I agree.

[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.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I don't loathe her, though I do think she would be able to play Julia Oversley. Or maybe Miss Wraxton in the Grand Sophy.

There does seem to be a problem in that Heyer wrote a lot of very young heroines and there just aren't that many very-early-twenties actressess whose names people have heard of. Even Jemima Rooper must be twenty-seven or so by now.