OscarWilde Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Colin Firth and Ben Barnes alone do not an Oscar Wilde adaptation make -- and with filming on Dorian Gray having already started (more on that in a moment), it's a good thing they filled out the rest of the cast! Variety reports that just about every British actor not working on Harry Potter or The Tudors has signed on.

Rebecca Hall is probably the most notable addition -- IMDB claims she's playing Emily Wooten, a character which doesn't seem to exist in the original book. But she's no stranger to gloomy Victorian stories, as she's probably best known to American audiences as Christian Bale's tormented wife in The Prestige. The key female role appears to have gone to Rachel Hurd-Wood, who will be playing Sibyl Vane, the actress Gray falls in love with. Emilia Fox is playing Lady Victoria Wooten, wife of Firth's character.

Completing the cast are: Ben Chaplin, Fiona Shaw, Maryam D'Abo, Pip Torrens, Douglas Henshall, Caroline Goodall, Michael Culkin, Johnny Harris and newcomer Max Irons, son of Jeremy Irons. This is going to be a real film of young up and comers, isn't it? Barnes, Hall, Hurd-Wood, Irons ... it should be quite interesting to see who might take off from this.

And I wasn't wrong when I said a photo of Firth and Barnes in cravats would be forthcoming. Variety has one accompanying their article -- and it's a nice official still, not a grainy one from the British paparazzi as I was expecting. You can already sense the debauchery, can't you?

At last, there's a delightful cast addition to The Picture of Dorian Gray. In all the excitement of summer, this film undoubtedly dropped off your radar. But back in May, Ben Barnes (otherwise known as Prince Caspian) was cast as the eternally beautiful lead. (I know some of you haven't forgotten, I get comments praising Barnes about once a week. He's got quite a following!)

Now, the god of lushly wet shirts (otherwise known as Colin Firth ) has joined the cast. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he'll be playing the witty Lord Henry Wotton, the aristocrat who corrupts young Gray with his hedonistic pursuits and outlook. And yes, there's a good dash of homoeroticism inherent in their relationship as well. It has the potential to be deliciously dark and twisted onscreen.

Firth is, obviously, no stranger to costume pieces or Oscar Wilde. He co-starred in the delightful The Importance of Being Earnest, which was also directed by Wilde aficionado Oliver Parker. As they're selling this as a "visceral, dark horror story," I'm really excited to see Firth in it. He seems to be the go-to guy for American romantic comedies lately, and it will be fun to see him be villainous again. Filming begins this week, and I bet there will be photos of both men in cravats and poet shirts in London's Metro paper by the end of August.

No more does the "next Orlando Bloom" crown descend than Ben Barnes begins racking up the lead roles. Currently onscreen as the titular Prince Caspian, Barnes is set to tackle a literary classic -- the title role in The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gray is actually in really good hands. It's being helmed by director Oliver Parker, and produced by Barnaby Thompson, the team behind An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. I thought both were splendid, so I'm immediately intrigued. (Others may disagree, but that's what the comments are for.)

Parker plans to "make a visceral, dark horror story" and says the themes of stardom are as relevant as ever. It's set to begin filming at the end of July.

I haven't seen Prince Caspian yet, so I can't judge Barnes' acting ability. Neither Jette nor Jeffery had anything too negative to say about him in their reviews, apart from his accent. My sister, who beats me to nearly every movie, said he was gorgeous but unremarkable. (Actually, what she said was meaner, but I'm not going to repeat it.) So, what say you Caspian watchers -- think this nice looking boy is Wilde material?

Frankly, I think if they're going to tackle Dorian Gray, they ought to have an actor who really must have a portrait rotting in his garret. I'm thinking primarily of Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp. The way they look just isn't right.

In an effort to promote his new production of Oscar Wilde's Salome which runs in LA through May 14, Al Pacino created a podcast, located on the show's webpage. Though in theory there will be several episodes, there's currently only one (and it went up almost three weeks ago) -- but since the site offers the option of subscribing to the podcast's feed, it seems reasonable to hope there will be more.

In the current episodes, Pacino introduces the play, wears Crocs, explains his reasons for staging the show as a reading rather than a full production (I'm not sure I buy it, but he claims that period costumes would distance the audiences from the story -- call me crazy, but can't you just stage it in modern dress? It strikes me that seeing people walking around with scripts would be at least as distracting as period clothing.), and discusses whether Salome is going to get naked (they're working on it). It also includes footage of readings, so you can get an idea of what the production looks like. If you're not in LA, never fear -- there's always the movie, which is expected to hit festivals later this year.

[via Digg, WSJ]