It seems Colin Firth is going to spend much of the next year or so playing gay. Just yesterday we reported he is attached to a biopic of gay entertainer Noel Coward, covering his time in Las Vegas. Now Variety reports that Firth is set to play Oscar Wilde in a movie called The Happy Prince, which is being written and directed by Rupert Everett.
While Stephen Fry’s 1997 film, Wilde, concentrated on Wilde’s most productive years and the run up to the trial that ended up with him getting imprisoned on charges of sodomy and gross indecency, The Happy Prince focuses on Oscar’s final days. It will see Wilde considering his own failure through his trademark wit and irony. After his imprisonment, Wilde spent his days in self-imposed exile in France He briefly reunited with his love, Lord Alfred Douglas, but was kept away from his children. Although he published The Ballad Of Reading Gaol, he did very little writing and his health began to fail (partly due to poverty). He died of cerebral meningitis at the age of 46.
As well as Firth, Edward Fox, Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson are also onboard the movie. While the movie will mark Everett’s directorial debut, he’s no stranger to Wilde, having starred in adaptations of The Importance Of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband. It’s due to shoot sumer 2013.
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