Can Keira Knightley outdo Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews in 'My Fair Lady'?
Reports out of London are that Keira Knightley is considering starring in a remake of the 1964 Academy Award-winning musical "My Fair Lady".
The 23-year-old actress would have big shoes to fill should she take on the iconic role of Eliza Doolittle, the cockney flower girl who wishes to make something of herself under the tutelage of professor Henry Higgins. Julie Andrews starred on Broadway in the original 1956 Lerner & Loewe musicalization of George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play "Pygmalion." It won six Tony Awards, including best musical and best actor (Rex Harrison), but Andrews lost the Tony Award for best actress to Judy Holliday ("Bells Are Ringing") and then lost the movie role to Audrey Hepburn.
While Jack Warner may have balked at casting the relatively unknown Andrews in his multimillion dollar production, Walt Disney soon had her starring in "Mary Poppins." And come Oscar night, it was Andrews who won the best actress Academy Award while Hepburn was not even nominated. However, good sport that she was, Audrey Hepburn was on hand to announce her co-star, Rex Harrison, as the best actor winner.
The backlash against the casting of Audrey Hepburn had intensified when it was rumored she was dubbed by Marni Nixon (who also pinched hit the high notes for Natalie Wood in "West Side Story" and Deborah Kerr in "The King and I"). Nowadays, audiences expect the star to sing for their supper. Keira Knightley does just that in "The Edge of Love," an upcoming biopic of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. As one of his love's, Vera Killick, she warbles "Blue Tahitian Moon."
While that ditty, composed by nine-time Oscar winner Alfred Newman for 1942's "Son of Fury," is charming enough, it is nowhere near as vocally demanding as the score of "My Fair Lady." However, don't underestimate Knightley's talents. After all, she got an Oscar nod for her 2005 take on "Pride and Prejudice," something Greer Garson could not manage in 1940 even with Laurence Olivier as her co-star.
And much like Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennett, Shaw's Eliza Doolittle requires an actress that can combine fire with ice. Do it right and you may well be rewarded with awards. Back in 1938, Wendy Hiller was Oscar nominated for the first film version of "Pygmalion." And Amanda Plummer picked up a Tony Award nomination for her appearance in the 1987 production of this play. However, Claire Danes was just snubbed by the Tonys for her run in the most recent rialto revival.
Of course, the plum role in the piece may just be Henry Higgins. Rex Harrison won the Tony, the Oscar, and the Golden Globe for the part and the producers of this remake are said to be pursuing Daniel Day-Lewis. For now, the two-time Oscar winner is busy preparing to make "Nine," a musical version of Fellini's "8 ½."
(Photos: AMPAS, Focus Features)
It's probably already a done deal and Knightley signed but what they must do then is get a British actor who can sing for the role of Henry Higgins, please.
Someone like Jerremy Northam or...?
Posted by: Eliza | June 17, 2008 at 09:38 PM
Why remake a movie that was good. Why not remake a movie that should have been good, but wasn't, like "A Little Night Music", and the dreadful "A Chorus Line",
Posted by: Larry | June 11, 2008 at 05:42 AM
keira very lucky.teenages loves her.but we are grown up with audrey movies.i dont think keira outdo audrey hepburn.
of course keira isnt bad actress but she will to play second string to audrey hepburn in my fair lady.
i think this choose very wrong.
Posted by: nile | June 10, 2008 at 06:49 AM