Today's Film News: My Fair Keira

By Katey Rich

Wouldn't it be loverly... if Hollywood would quit cannibalizing its past for the sake of another buck? No such luck today, though, with Keira Knightley in talks to star in an update of My Fair Lady. Variety says Columbia Pictures is planning to keep the 1912 setting and the songs from the original musical, but will flesh out Eliza's character and aim to shoot in London locations. Honestly, giving Eliza a bit more of a personality doesn't sound like a bad thing, but are all the original musical writers just on vacation right now? Can't we do better than this?

Well, if it's not a remake of an existing movie, it's a new project that fits squarely within an existing trend. F. Gary Gray has secured the rights to make a biopic about Marvin Gaye, with access to Gaye's complete musical catalog. It's got a leg up on another Gaye project in the works, Sexual Healing, which was only allowed access to Gaye's post-Motown music. Gray told Variety, "This is my passion project, the one that I wake up every day thinking about." So if you think it's bad when you can't get "Heard It Through the Grapevine" out of your head, just imagine what it's like in Gray's brain.

Adam Sandler's production shingle Happy Madison, due to have another hit this weekend with You Don't Mess With the Zohan, will be heading in a new direction with a new name. They're spinning off a horror label that they're dubbing Scary Madison, and will kick things off with the thriller Shortcut, about two brothers who learn the truth about a rarely used bypass in their town. The Hollywood Reporter says that Sandler will serve only as executive producer.

And finally, Paramount is so convinced they can revive any franchise that they've hired an unknown screenwriter to write the new adaptation of Dune, which was a famous disaster in its first incarnation back in 1984. Josh Zetumer has done some work on the script for Quantum of Solace, but has yet to see any of his scripts make it out of development, writes the Reporter. I believe that's what we in the industry call "baptism by fire."