… “My Fair Lady.” Variety reports that Columbia is putting together a new version of the classic Lerner & Lowe musical, George Cukor’s 1964 filmization of which copped the 1964 Best Picture Oscar.
The studio is calling it an “update,” something of a misnomer considering it will in fact retain the 1912 London milieu of the original. Their reasoning for this move escapes me, but Columbia co-president Doug Belgrad claims:
“This update will preserve the magic of the musical while fleshing out the characters and bringing 1912 London to life in an authentic and exciting way.”
I thought we already had the various interpretations of Shaw’s “Pygmalion” (not least Anthony Asquith’s still-surprisingly-fresh 1938 film) for character depth, but apparently we need another. London theatre impresario Cameron Mackintosh is also on board, and his justification for the project strikes me as even more tenuous than Belgrad’s. Apparently the story of Eliza Doolittle’s metamorphosis from Cockney guttersnipe to society belle “couldn’t be more timely in a contemporary world obsessed with overnight celebrity.” To which I can only ask, if the story is so relevant and contemporary, why not really update it?