They're remaking My Fair Lady.
They're remaking one of my favorite movies of all time, a musical which won eight academy awards and starred the lovely Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison, who had his character down to every subtlety of snobbery thinkable and got an academy award for it, with Kiera Knightley as the lead.
(for those of you who don't know this, I'm a NUT when it comes to classic musicals)
NO. Just no.
celeb9.com/blog/2009/02/keira-…First off, beside the obvious gut hatred I have toward Kiera Knightley, it's Rex Harrison. He refused to lipsynch to his own voice because he never sang the songs the same way twice. He was in the original Broadway cast. He worked with the authors and had Henry Higgins down to a f'ing ART. You can't replace him.
And it's Audrey Hepburn. Elegance, poise, and acting ability that extended past a repitoire of pouts. It wouldn't be so bad if they'd cast someone like Natalie Portman (Kiera is the reject Natalie - played the fake Amidala in Star Wars, a fact which I adore). But no. They cast miss pout. Ugh. I don't even care if Audrey didn't sing her own part; she embodied that character down to every subtlety of posture.
Okay, straight up numbers:
My Fair Lady won eight Oscars:
* Academy Award for Best Picture - Jack L. Warner
* Academy Award for Directing - George Cukor
* Academy Award for Best Actor - Rex Harrison
* Academy Award for Best Cinematography - Harry Stradling
* Academy Award for Sound - George R. Groves, Warner Brothers Studio
* Academy Award for Original Music Score - Andre Previn
* Academy Award for Best Art Direction - Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton and George James Hopkins
* Academy Award for Costume Design - Cecil Beaton
It was nominated for four other Oscars:
* Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay - Alan Jay Lerner
* Academy Award for Film Editing - William Ziegler
* Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor - Stanley Holloway
* Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress - Gladys Cooper
Golden Globe Awards
My Fair Lady won three Golden Globes
* Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
* Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture - George Cukor
* Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy - Rex Harrison
BAFTA Awards
* My Fair Lady won the BAFTA Award for Best Film from any source.
You can't beat that. You just can't.
Finally, I'm worried that the film will suck as bad as the 90s remake of The Music Man. If you didn't see the remake (or the original, in which case SHAME ON YOU), here's an illustration.
The original, the fabulous Buddy Hackett singing Shipoopi:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1iZar…And the failure of the remake done in the 90s:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj3mFk…(if this link screws up like I think it will, search "shipoopi broderick" in youtube. The video's just titled "Shipoopi")
Not enough for you? Well, watch these.
The original, Shirly Jones and Robert Preston. Robert Preston is a con man, and Shirly's a stern librarian who's learned to trust other people:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLDsLe…The remake. In which Matthew Broderick fails at playing a con man (and he was such a GREAT pickpocket or con man in the 80s in Beuller and Ladyhawke. Where'd that go?):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg1SxL…Hollywood, you make me sad. When the My Fair Lady remake comes out, I'm watching my cheap little DVD of the original film and reveling in the eight academy awards. I hope you enjoy the zero you're bound to get.
~E