Morocco Time

They’re shooting a new version of Brideshead Revisited, and one of the locations will be Morocco. I’m a bit dubious about the whole thing, since I think the 1981 version was about as close to perfect as you can get – and this will be a boiled down two hour version. Hmph. Here’s a photo of my favorite member of the cast:





And I suppose the other two are OK as well. One thing the new production has done right is to maintain the role of Aloysius Bear – there was a bit of a dust up where one of the original writers said the bear was written out, but this article from the Evening Standard corrects that notion:

Bear roars back in Brideshead
ANDREW DAVIES claimed he had done away with Aloysius, Sebastian Flyte’s ivory-backed bear, in the forthcoming film of Brideshead Revisited, for which he wrote the screenplay. But it transpires the enfant terrible of novel adaptations was speaking out of turn, and has been slapped down by the film’s producers in an extraordinary tussle behind the scenes over how radical the new adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s masterpiece should be.

Indeed, Davies is no longer involved with the project and has been replaced by Jeremy Brock, whom Ecosse Films have used before on films such as Charlotte Gray and Mrs Brown.

“Andrew wrote the first few drafts,” producer Douglas Rae tells me, “and Jeremy has now taken over. We felt Andrew had taken it to a place in one direction, but that it needed a more cinematic feel, which Jeremy will bring to it.”

And what about the bear? “I can confirm that Aloysius is firmly in the film, although he doesn’t have a speaking part. He appears in Sebastian’s room in Oxford and at home in Brideshead, although you won’t see him trailing behind him on a lead.”

So what about Andrew Davies’s extravagant claims? “I’m afraid Andrew must have been making mischief.” Davies is now keeping his trap firmly shut. “I’m afraid to say that Andrew is not commenting on Brideshead at the moment.” says a spokesman.