Keira Knightley has won out for the role of Eliza Doolittle in a remake of the musical My Fair Lady.
Keira Knightley, long rumoured to be on for the role, will shortly be starring as Eliza Doolittle in a redo of My Fair Lady. She’ll be re-teaming with Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice)
Keira seems destined to star in each and every period film in existance!
My wife loves her version of Pride and Prejudice (my favourite version as well), and I have no doubt she will be in love with this one as well. I will likely be forced to endure multiple viewings as well as the repeated scenes captured as I walk through the living room while she is bored on a Sunday afternoon.
But My Fair Lady is a musical, and I have yet to hear Miss Knightley’s vocal prowess, she has been reportedly taking singing lessons winning out the role over Scarlett Johansson.
The story is a musical version of the Pygmalion, which concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins so that she can pass as a lady. Daniel Craig is already touted to be playing Higgins.
My Fair Lady is one of my favorite movies. The only point about it that I have never been happy with is that they did not use Julie Andrews in the role of Eliza, but Audrey Hepburn, thinking she was more stunningly beautiful than Julie Andrews – despite the fact Audrey did not have the ability to sing. Yes, the job of dubbing in another singer’s voice was well done; but still it has always ended up diminishing the over all “reality” of the movie and to this day irritates me that Julie was bumped from the role despite having essentially creating it on Broadway.
Be that as it may, perhaps it is time for a remake; after all, the story of My Fair Lady is timeless and speaks to all generations and is one of the reasons it has stood the test of time as a literary work, play on Broadway and later film. It reveals in a most delightful way the fact that the conventions of speech and etiquette and moving within the highest reaches of “society” are things that can be learned if one wishes to and that all of us have the ability to improve our station in life – if we are not too lazy to believe we can and try.
IF they can update it and bring it to a new generation with current production values and/or even possibly transpose the story line into a modern day setting and get away with a musical it could turnout to be amazing.
At the very least, it would be nice to be able to watch it and not be thinking in the back of one’s mind that the entire time Audrey Hepburn is singing she was actually silently mouthing the words so that the voice of Marni Nixon could be dubbed in.
Audrey did a great job of acting and God knows she was beautiful, but shame on bean counters who cast aside Julie Andrews who had it all in one package. MAYBE this time, they will finally get it totally right? Hope so.
One more point re My Fair Lady. If I were marketing today, I would make sure it was brought to the attention of the large numbers of immigrants from Bangladesh and India.
Two reasons: One addresses a very important issue – learning to speak English and speak it properly so that they can effectively become part of America and make the best of their opportunity here and secondly, the people from this area are REALLY into musicals.
Just take a look at the huge number of titles coming out of Bollywood (Indian’s cinema production industry). These movies tend to be a tad on the schmaltzy side and a bit over blown in the emotion/romantic/love departments – but they definitely demonstrate that the people from this region have a taste and desire for romance with music being an integral part of it.
Oh dear. For someone to consider stepping into Ms Hepburn’s shoes they need to have a ‘stage’ presence to rival the protagonist of Professor Higgins.
These two need to be two forces of nature that collide.
Keira got completely run over by Johnny Depp in Pirates, and so I thiimagine when she also has to sign and dance she can only disappoint. Can’t the casting dpeartment get a little more creative than this?
I really like Keira Knightly but what is with all these remakes? Can’t we just appreciate Audrey Hepburn and the original?
I’m not a great fan of remakes. Especially not if it’s a remake of a movie with Audrey Hepburn. Keira is a fine actress, but she isn’t Audrey. I agree with samiam0605, they should not remake classics. What kid would ever watch Footloose with Kevin Bacon when they can watch it with Chace Crawford?
I love Keira Knightley….
The greatest musical comedy ever, on stage or on screen, IMO. From the time I was a kid, I’ve been a huge fan. I was even in a production in my youth (as BOTH Freddy and Zoltan). A remake is frought with peril–primarily comparison to Harrison, Hepburn and Cukor. It can’t possibly be as good, let alone better. But it might be interesting. And on that basis, I’d be happy to give it a chance. Keep in mind, too, that this a G.B. Shaw social satire (in spite of Lerner and Lowe’s plot changes) and as such deserving of a new, up to date perspective.
I’m sorry I usually don’t mind remakes but this just does not seem right. My Fair Lady is a classic and no one does a better Higgins than Rex Harrison. I mean its only one of the greatest musicals ever made and the movie was perfect. If they’re going to remake it they might as well remake On The Waterfront, The Godfather, Gone With the Wind, and the classic of classics Casablanca to kill whats left of Hollywoods golden age.
There is nothing wrong with remakes. Yes, My Fair Lady, Gone with the Wind, Wizard of Oz, and so forth are all classics. However, today’s young adults don’t watch what their parents watch. They don’t care if it’s a classic. They want to be able to relate to the character and by doing so they need to relate to today’s actors (by former known movies). I’m excited to see what the outcome will be. Good or Bad. Only way to find out…
I’m not sure how I feel about this. . . why are they remaking the original? It’s a classic.
This comment could be applied to most movies this decade.
Most movies aren’t remakes.