Keira Knightley will be working again with her favorite director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement) for the new version of MY FAIR LADY. Her possible involvement was already talked about a while back when producers Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Duncan Kenworthy were planning the remake but now telegraph reporter can confirm that Knightley has beaten Scarlett Johansson for the coveted role…
Turns out it came down to 2 names. Sir Mackintosh went on record saying “I have two actresses as potential Elizas, one British, the other American,” “You’d know their names, but I’m not letting on.” Way to get the press going.
I’m glad Knightley got the job. Scarlett is just about cleavage and looks, nowhere close to the level of skills that Knightley can display on screen.
Apparently last year she had auditioned and begun singing lessons. She’s ready to play Eliza Doolittle, a character made iconic by the late great Audrey Hepburn in the story about a misogynistic and snobbish phonetics professor who agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society
To make things even complete, Oscar winning Emma Thompson is reworking the script. And word has it, Daniel Craig be the top candidate for Professor Henry Higgins played by Rex Harrison in the original 1964 version.
At one point Danny Boyle was rumored to helm the project but he denied it. No worries, Mandrake has Joe Wright who had to leave Indian Summer, a drama about the relationship between Countess Mountbatten of Burma and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, because The Indian government are worried about the portrayal of the alleged love affair.
