Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Dorian Gray
12/9/08 – SCI FI Wire reported that Rebecca Hall, who co-stars with Ben Barnes, Colin Firth and Ben Chaplin in director Oliver Parker's upcoming film Dorian Gray, said the adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray may upset Oscar Wilde purists.  The story is set in Victorian London and follows a remarkably handsome young man, Dorian Gray (Barnes), who's the subject of a portrait by an artist named Basil Hallward (Chaplin). Dorian soon meets and is greatly influenced by Hallward's hedonist friend, Lord Henry Wotton (Firth). Complicating matters, Dorian's wish that he never age, that he never loses his outward beauty, comes true. The film takes many liberties with the story, among them adding the character of Wotton's daughter, Emily, played by Hall.  Emily Wotton, the actress explained, makes her presence felt during a section of the film in which all the characters get old. "Colin Firth has lots of very successful aging makeup," Hall said. "And then I arrive after the 25-year gap period as his child that's grown up. So the idea is that she's sort of a new woman and quite spirited and a feminist and a photographer. And that's probably all I am liberty to tell you without giving away any guts." Dorian Gray will be released in 2009.

8/8/08 - British actress Rebecca Hall has joined Colin Firth in the cast of Ealing Studios' Dorian Gray, and adaptation of Oscar Wilde's supernatural novel, Variety reported.  Oliver Parker directs Dorian Gray, which stars Ben Barnes as the ageless title character. Ealing's Barnaby Thompson produces.  Other cast members announced Aug. 7 are Ben Chaplin, Emilia Fox, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Fiona Shaw, Maryam D'Abo, Pip Torrens, Douglas Henshall, Caroline Goodall, Michael Culkin, Johnny Harris and newcomer Max Irons, son of Jeremy Irons.  The movie will be released in the United Kingdom in the fall of 2009.

8/1/08 - Colin Firth has signed on to star opposite Ben Barnes in Dorian Gray, the retelling of the Oscar Wilde supernatural classic being directed by Oliver Parker.  Based on The Picture of Dorian Gray, the story centers on Gray (Barnes), a young man who becomes the subject of a painting. As the man descends into a hedonistic lifestyle, the portrait begins to age and morph, but he doesn't.  Firth will play Lord Henry Wotton, the aristocrat who corrupts Gray with his worldview.

AlienAlmanac.com 2008