We get wind today that Jess Biel is set to star is a rom-com based on the 20’s play Easy Virtue. We get wind of this thanks to the mystical caves of Yahoo:
Jessica Biel has been cast as the lead in “Easy Virtue,” a romantic comedy based on the Noel Coward play. Biel plays an American divorcee who travels to the South of France and marries a young wealthy Englishman (played by Ben Barnes) on the spur of the moment. They return to England to face his disapproving family. Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas will play his parents.
Alfred Hitchcock was the first to bring Coward’s 1924 three-act play to the big screen, with a 1928 silent movie. His film changed the storyline considerably, and it was a challenge adapting Coward’s dialog to the intertitles.
I have not yet had the chance to see the play, or the Hitchcock adaptation, but my New Year’s resolution was to watch as many Hitchcock films as I possibly can find (including the silent films). I will say this – if Hitchcock thought the story was worth retelling in cinema; then the source material must be golden. I think it’s awesome that so many years on, a talkie adaptation of the play is being made. It will be interesting to compare the two films with the stage production; and I will try my best to keep an ear out for any stage productions of Easy Virtue.
Jessica Biel is grade A leading lady material. She looks like an escaped sex robot that decided she wanted to be a legitimate actress. We support this decision and I welcome her appearance in anything. I would tape a commercial if she was in it; I would watch it on repeat, and pause the best part (for personal reasons). Divorce is far more popular than it was in the 20’s and it will be nice that so many people will be able to relate to the characters now. We will keep our antennae in the air for a release date.
