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Decent Quality Since 1847

Watch This Space

7/15/2014

2 Comments

 
For a film project I'm working on, I've been researching directors and was going through British agency lists, which (unlike U.S. agencies) tend to often include who their clients are, as well their credits. This is remarkably helpful, though it does tend to make one's eyes very bleary after several hundred names and scrollings and double-checking the iMDB and watching videos.

Amid all that, I came across one particular director, and my eyes happened on his "in development" listing, which tended to be something I skipped past, looking only for what they'd already done.  And besides, "in development" can mean months away...or never.  But for whatever reason, I happened to catch notice of something which leaped out.  It was for a director named Vadim Jean and called the "Lionel Bart project," going by the title at the moment, Consider Yourself. 

Now, of course, as I said, that doesn't mean it will ever get made, but it certainly was intriguing, and not a horrible idea since -- though Bart didn't have a lot of projects that were successful, he had a pretty rollercoaster rags-to-riches-to-rags life.  And needless to say when he was successful with Oliver!, that's about as big a success as one can get.  (Also, though they weren't known in the U.S., he did have much more success than just Oliver! in England.  Among many other things, his first musical which I did a piece on here, Lock Up Your Daughters, and lyrics for the theme of the James Bond film, To Russia, With Love ).

Anyway, I didn't give it more thought than that, since it was just an "in development" thingee.  But I did mention it later to my friend Shelly Goldstein -- which got me to figuring I should give her more information than just that.  So, I went back and searched out the info from my notes. And found out that it might well be much more along than I presumed.  It's being developed for The Mob Company -- as well as BBC Films. And more importantly, the actually appear to have an actor attached.  And if this does hold true...it's tremendous casting.  Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush!  Not only is he someone who can easily pull off a performance as Lionel Bart (from what I've seen and know of Bart), but they don't look terribly dissimilar either.
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So...who knows?  Oddly, there's nothing about the film on The Mob Film Company's website, so for the moment, I'm reviewing the situation.  Updates as the occur...

And hey, as long as we're talking about the life of Lionel Bart and other things he's done besides Oliver!, here's one of the first, when he was writing hit songs for a young rock star named Tommy Steele.  This is a rhythm-and-blues number from the 1957 movie, The Tommy Steele Story, written with Mike Pratt and Steele, called "Butterfingers."
2 Comments
Douglass Abramson
7/15/2014 01:01:00 pm

Huh, not what comes to my mind when I hear "Tommy Steele". He was quite good. I wonder why an American label didn't sign him to a recording contract at the time. He probably would have been at least a modest success. He was good in Finnian's Rainbow and The Happiest Millionaire, but the bloom was off the American movie musical by then.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
7/15/2014 04:44:26 pm

Yeah, Tommy Steele began his career as a huge rock star in England. Though a bit softer than what was going on in the U.S. Keep in mind that the British Invasion wouldn't start for almost another decade, so Brit rocks stars really weren't on people's minds that much in that era. When he did "Half a Sixpence," it was a huge deal -- my parents saw that on a trip to London, and they talked about how excited people were that he was in the show.

The biggest problem he had with his U.S. movie career, while in part that musicals were starting to fade, was largely I think because none of this three (those you mentioned, and "Half a Sixpence") did especially significant business. But he went on to have a huge career on stage in England. As I think I wrote here -- maybe not? -- I saw him on stage in "Singin' in the Rain," which he also directed. And was quite good. I've looked for video footage of it, but can't find any. Maybe I'll post some stuff from the cast album.

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    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



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