APPEALING TO EALING

OF ALL THE subjects that have attracted remake attention over the past few years - from classic TV series to B-grade horror movies - none is potentially more interesting than Robert Hamer’s 1949 classic, Kind Hearts and Coronets. Perhaps the most quintessentially British of all the classic Ealing comedies, it was, said film historian Basil Wright in 1972, “a film which can be seen and seen again with undiminished pleasure”. Even Lindsay Anderson, possibly the harshest critic of his country’s films, liked it.

Remembered by most people as the film in which the late Alec Guinness played eight roles, it was the story of the penniless heir to the D’Ascoyne fortune (a part taken by a young Dennis Price) who sets about bumping off the eight relatives who stand between him and the millions.

A Hollywood remake is some way down the track, but lovers of the original film can rest assured that it is in capable hands: the new script is by Elaine May, and there seems every possibility that her husband, Mike Nichols, will direct. A script reading was held in Los Angeles at the end of July, a few days before Guinness’ death, with readers including Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Connie Nielsen… and Robin Williams, the actor most likely to reprise the Guinness roles. Once May has fine-tuned the screenplay, the film, sources say, will be made at Universal.

BELIVE IT OR NOT

WHEN WE COVERED The Talented Mr Ripley (above left), we rather banged on about how Hollywood had tended to ignore Patricia Highsmith, noting that such few of her books as had been filmed were the result of the interest of European film-makers.

Well, the success of the Miramax/Minghella/Matt Damon movie has obviously focused quite a few minds on the cinematic potential of Highsmith’s world, which is at once icy cold and seriously over-heated. And, wouldn’t you know it, those pesky Europeans are leading the charge yet again.

Foremost amongst these is the UK-based Granada Film, which is teaming up for a second time with Mr Mudd, the company headed by John Malkovich (US born, but resident in Provence when he can find the time) and Lianne Halfon. The first Mudd-Granada pairing was on Ghost World, which we featured in our last issue. Now, the film which they have chosen to follow this is based on one of Highsmith’s later novels, Found on the Street.

The movie is due to go into production this autumn, and will mark the directorial debut of Malkovich’s former boss, Terry Kinney, who was one of the co-founders of the Steppenwolf Theater Company. Casting has yet to be announced.

Nor is that the only Highsmith adaptation currently on the starting blocks. Fine Line, which owns the rights to Ripley’s Game, the writer’s first sequel to The Talented Mr Ripley (and already filmed by Wim Wenders as The American Friend), has signed Italian director Liliana Cavani (best known outside Italy for The Night Porter) for a new version. Here, too, production is due to start this autumn in Germany, with a cast that already has Pierce Brosnan and Dougray Scott in place.