The Scarlet Pimpernel

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pvitari
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Joined: January 30th, 2010, 8:26 am

The Scarlet Pimpernel

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I love the Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon Pimpernel and Raymond Massey, but I confess my favorite version is the TV one, with Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour and Ian McKellan.

And I bring this up because it looks like they're going to make a new one, to be produced by Dominick Fairbanks, great-grandson of Doug Sr. and grandson of Doug Jr.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/con ... dfd9943a60

LONDON -- A £75 million ($120 million) movie based on Baroness Orczy's classic "The Scarlet Pimpernel" is front and center of seriously ambitious production plans for Fairbanks Productions, the U.K.'s newest and big-talking filmmaking banner on the block.

Dominick Fairbanks, the great grandson and grandson of Hollywood legends Douglas Fairbanks and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., plans to bring his famous Hollywood family name into the 21st century with his production banner upstart.

His team for the launch includes cult British writer and director Michael Armstrong, who takes the role of head of creative development, and executive producer James Black.

On hand at an extravagant old school launch for the next generation of Fairbanks' royalty at a private function held here in the famous Dorchester Grill in the central London hotel, the third generation Fairbanks unveiled his team and plans.

The company aims to launch a slate of productions in early 2011 but Black told The Hollywood Reporter a remake of "The Scarlet Pimpernel," starring upcoming Brit actor Neil Jackson, whose big screen credits include a turn in "Quantum Of Solace," is front and center.

"We want to try and do to the story of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" what Guy Ritchie did to 'Sherlock Holmes' [for Warner Bros]," said Black.

Plans are to shoot the picture sometime in the latter half of next year, "somewhere in Eastern Europe," according to Black, with a host of "high profile cameos" in the movie.

But the production banner is not all about big-budget dreams.

Black, Fairbanks and Armstrong are all committed to the family dynasty's commitment to nurturing and creating talent behind the camera for the future.

The upstart banner has already committed to make "Kill The Dead," an original script from award-winning short filmmaker Shaune Harrison, its first fully-financed picture.

Harrison's script, which he will direct, is set in the near future and details a reality TV show where contestants kill people recently brought back to life for that purpose.

With a budget of a moderate £5 million ($8 million), "Kill the Dead" will set out the company's stall for supporting fresh talent and storytelling. Harrison said he has just delivered the second draft of "Dead" to Fairbanks and hopes to make it next year. Harrison's day job is as a prosthetic make up artist of repute whose credits include "Captain America" and the "Harry Potter" movies.

The company has backing from a "tapestry of high-networth individuals," according to Black and also has commercial relationships with U.S. bank Metro Bank, whose Anthony Thompson was on hand to talk up the proposed launch of the U.K.'s latest retail banking enterprise and HSBC.

Fairbanks Productions has also engaged U.K. legal eagles Harbottle and Lewis to add gravitas to the ambitions.

Douglas Fairbanks starred in a myriad Hollywood productions and was one of the founders of United Artists in 1919. His son, Fairbanks Jr., a decorated soldier on both sides of the Atlantic after serving in PT boats and gunboats in WW2 followed in his father's footsteps carving out a successful career in movies also.
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