Simon Curtis is a filmmaker who doesn't stand out much. In fact, most people probably wouldn't know he directed "My Week With Marilyn," which got pushed into Oscar territory thanks to the tireless efforts of Harvey Weinstein, not becuase it was a particularly good film. And prior to that, the filmmaker was "known" for his work on Brit TV, which again, hardly made him a standout. So an adaptation of an Edith Wharton novel seems like exactly the sort of material he would take on.
And indeed, he will be taking on the author's unfinished work "The Buccaneers" because Merchant/Ivory can't. Okay, we're being a bit snarky here, but another high-society tale of women finding men etc etc — haven't we seen this already? Actually, some of you may already have as the BBC did a five-part mini-series in 1995, albeit with a different ending than the one penned by Marion Mainwaring, that ultimately saw Wharton's "completed" book published in 1993. How will Curtis shakes things up here? No idea, but hopefully screenwriter Heidi Thomas ("I Capture The Castle," "Upstairs Downstairs") did something inventive with the material.
But this far into his career, Curtis hasn't been the most adventurous bloke on the block and something tells us it won't be too unlike the mini for which you can watch the trailer below. [THR]
