If I Could Write an Old Hollywood Biopic
Hollywood loves a good biopic, and in the past 12 months we’ve
gotten them on Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. There are also two reported
Fred Astaire biopic/series coming (one with Ginger Rogers and one
without) and, reportedly, a Gene Kelly one in the works.
It got me thinking… if I could write a biopic or a limited series about one of my favourite Old Hollywood stars, what angle would I take? So now I present to you my prospective projects for any future works. Agents, I’ll be awaiting your calls.
Audrey Hepburn
I mean, where to start? But for this exercise, I’m going with
a movie based on the making of My Fair Lady. Her marriage was strained,
she was dealing with Rex Harrison (who did, eventually, come around to liking her),
the fact that everyone thought she’d stole the role from Julie Andrews, the
drama over the fact that her singing was going to be dubbed (and nobody had the
guts to inform her), and her attempting to balance work with motherhood, which
was what she always wanted.
A subplot could involve Julie Andrews over at Walt Disney Studios
making Mary Poppins now that she’s free to make it, with the film
culminating on Oscar nomination morning where her name is called and Audrey’s
isn’t.
Grace Kelly
I want a biopic of those final months in Hollywood. Let’s see
Grace filming High Society, trying to work with the palace on wedding plans,
dealing with her overbearing parents, trying to get out of her MGM contract,
and dealing with microscopic fame.
Flashback scenes include her Oscar win, her New York years,
constantly trying to live up to her parents’ expectations, and her trip to Cannes
that resulted in her meeting Prince Rainier to begin with.
The movie ends as Grace is walking down the palace corridor on
her wedding day in that gorgeous wedding gown, staring her future in the face.
Ginger Rogers
I want a dual storyline series about Ginger that traces her partnership
with Fred Astaire and contrasts all the fun and whim against her attempts at
becoming a serious actress with Kitty Foyle, and her more dramatic fare in
the ‘40s and ‘50s.
Each episode would centre around a Rogers/Astaire musical but
flashbulbs would change the storyline into the future, where she has more clout
as a serious actress. The film would end with the past and present converging
as Ginger and Fred meet up one last time for either The Barkleys of Broadway
or their ‘60s appearance at the Oscars after they’ve both achieved legend status.
Doris Day and Rock Hudson
Give me a limited series about the making of Pillow Talk,
Lover Come Back, and Send Me No Flowers that shows Doris Day and
Rock Hudson as Hollywood made them contrasted with who they were when the cameras
weren’t rolling.
Scenes would include Doris’s day as a big band singer and two
failed marriages under her belt by the time she makes it big; Rock trying to
become a star; and then both of them dealing with fame, Martin Melcher, trying
to stay closeted when everyone seems to know your secret, and then Doris’s turn
towards television and seclusion and Rock’s final battle with AIDS.
Esther Williams
I want a limited series set in the mid-to-late ‘40s that’s
brightly coloured, musical, and watery, that shows how Esther Williams’ brand
of stardom was unique to her and to the time. Her autobiography, Million
Dollar Mermaid is a treasure trove of details.
I don’t have any specific requests for scenes, just that you’d
need a swimmer who can act and do those beautiful aquacade scenes justice. Also,
I’m obsessed with her restaurant, The Trails, so there would need to be scenes
there.
Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine
Do I even need to say it? You know what I want. You want it
too. Trace their lives over their decades in Hollywood and how their
relationship was affected by each new pinnacle.
Scenes must include Joan winning the Oscar in 1942, Olivia
winning in 1947 and snubbing her sister, and their supposed battle when their mother
was dying in the ‘70s. A flash forward would show Joan and Olivia settled in
Carmel and Paris, respectively, and how death finally put the feud to rest. Final
scene would be of Olivia in Paris in 2021.
Debbie Reynolds
I want the Debbie-Eddie-Liz love affair told from Debbie’s
perspective. I want Eddie and Liz to be off-screen characters. The only time
you ever see them is on television or newspapers, and it’s the two actors from
archival materials, not actors portraying them. Would trace Debbie’s rise and
the fame she achieved on her own, and how she picked herself up from the
scandal.
The only crucial scenes I would want included are the night
Debbie called for Eddie and Liz picked up the phone, and the day Debbie
appeared on her doorstep covered in diaper pins to win over the public (when moments
before she was asking what a diaper pin even is).
Loretta Young
Loretta fascinates me. I would want either a movie about the
whole Call of the Wild shoot, where Clark Gable allegedly date raped her
resulting in pregnancy, and how this staunch Catholic reconciled the situation;
or a movie of her realizing that television is where she wants to go and
becoming one of the first major stars to transition to the small screen in the
early ‘50s.
Ann-Margret
A movie about her rise. Suddenly she was everywhere in the ‘60s. Her autobiography is so fascinating, too. I was so pissed when she didn’t pop up in the Elvis Presley biopic. Give her justice!
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Who would you want to give the biopic treatment if you could? Let me know in the comments.
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