Colin Firth is set to play famed English playwright Noel Coward, in the Willy Holtzman-penned project, “Mad Dogs And Englishmen,” about Coward’s eventful two week stay at The Desert Inn in Las Vegas in 1955. Although there’s still no director attached, this seems like a great role for the actor to sink his teeth into, as Coward was famous for what Time called “a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise.” So we’ll be definitely be looking forward to this project in the future. [Screen Daily]
Two giants of the Scandinavian cinematic world, Lone Scherfig (“An Education” and “One Day”) and Pernilla August (“Beyond”), are set to join forces together on an adaptation of the classic Hjalmar Söderberg novel, “The Serious Game.” The novel follows a couple who meet early in life, go their separate ways and then meet again when they are married to other people. The “Scandinavian dream team” will be splitting duties, with August directing Scherfig’s screenplay, and are promising a costume epic along the lines of recent entries by Andrea Arnold and Jane Campion. No one has been cast yet; production is set to begin in 2013. [Screen Daily]
After the success of Tim Burton’s take on “Alice In Wonderland,” studios went crazy over films based on fairy tales, and much like what happened with Snow White this year, there’s two competing projects based on “Beauty and the Beast” in development. Although Guillermo Del Toro is officially signed on as the director of one of them (with “Harry Potter” star Emma Watson starring), it appears that the first project to actually enter production will be from Christophe Gans ("Brotherhood of the Wolf"). Gans’ film, simply titled “Beauty and the Beast” (or “La Belle et Bête”), stars Léa Seydoux (“Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” and “Inglourious Basterds”) and Vincent Cassel (“Black Swan”) as the eponymous couple, and just signed the legendary French actor, Gérard Depardieu, although it's unclear what role the actor will take. The film will lens this October with a release date of Fall 2013. [Screen Daily]
And finally, Rupert Everett will make his directorial and screenwriting debut with “The Happy Prince,” an Oscar Wilde biopic. Everett, pulling triple duty, stars as Wilde, and has drafted a talented cast to help him realize Wilde’s life, including Colin Firth (him again?) legendary character actor Edward Fox, Emily Watson, and Tom Wilkinson.The film will take place during Wilde’s final days as he looks back on his life with characteristic dry wit and black humor, and seeing as it shares a name with Wilde's classic fairy tale, it may well end up including some elements of that story. There’s been a whole slew of actors getting behind the camera over the past few years, hopefully Everett ends up on the Ben Affleck side of the spectrum. Shooting starts summer 2013. [Hollywood Reporter]