For years I’ve tweeted suggestions that the wonderful Emily Blunt star in the long-in-development remake of “My Fair Lady.’’ Imagine my horror to hear she may instead star in a remake of … “Mary Poppins.’’
Don’t do it, Emily! For starters, plans to set the Disney musical 20 years on, into the Great Depression, make no more sense than the disastrous decision to move “Annie’’ out of the ﷽Depꦛression and into the 21st century.
Let’s not forget that just two years ago, Disney’s “Saving Mr. Banks’’ — the back story of how Walt ﷽Disney bent P.L. Travers’ original story to his will ꦺ— was hardly a hit with moviegoers, much less Oscar voters.
Emily, do you really want to follow in Julie Andꦛrews’ footsteps? Having created the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway, she lost that role in the “My Fair Lady” movie to Audrey Hepburn. And while Andrews won the Best Actress Oscar for “Mary Poppins’’ (Hepburn wasn’t even nominated), do you want to risk being typecast as a goody-two-shoes like poor Andrews, playing grandmother to the 2051 version of Anne Hathaway in Disney’s inevitable remake of “The Princess Diaries’’? I didn’t think so.
Luckily, time is ꦆon your side. your current pregnancy (thank you, John Krasinski!) may create scheduling issues. So stall, and maybe “My Fair Lady,’’ which producer in 2014 has been shelved, will be back in play. (At t📖he time, music mogul Clive Davis was reportedly trying to mount a Broadway revival.)
Meanwh♐ile, Emily, it’s no secret that you’re still interested in “My Fair Lady.’’ Why else would you perform “On the Street Where You Live’’ as a last fall? Though known mo🦩st recently for action films like “Sicario,’’ you’ve demonstrated your vocal chops in films as varied as “Looper’’ and “Into the Woods.’’
Yo൲u were among several names floated when CBS Films and Sony were trying to put together the remake. The nostril-flaring Keira Knightley was briefly attached in 2008, and overrated It girl Carey Mulligan two years later. Both terrible choices, if you ask me.
Hugh Grant and Colin Firth have both been mentioned to play the misogynistic Hen🃏ry Higgiꩵns, but there’s only one “My Fair Lady’’ leading man for you, Emily — Hugh Laurie! In my version, Laurie’s longtime comedy partner Stephen Fry would play Colonel Pickering, with Michael Caine as Eliza’s dad, Maggie Smith, of course, as the disapproving Mrs. Higgins and, say, Ben Whishaw as the stalkerish Freddy. (Mr. Mackintosh, you can send my check to The Post.)
Yes, there are friends of mine who are horrified at the very idea of a remake. But I think there’s plenty of room for improvement over George Cukor’s heavily lacquered, Oscar-winning 1964 version, whose main virtue is preserving Rex Harrison’s Broadway performance (after Cary Grant turned the part down). Emma Thompson, who’s written the script for the remake (and coincidenta💖lly played P.L. Travers in “Saving Mr. Banks’’), is correct in of Audrey Hepburn, whose singing had to be dubbed by Marni Nixon.
Based on the reaction I’ve gotten on Twitter, Emily, I’m not the only one who would like to see performed by an actress who has deไmonstrated her proficiency with weapons in the likes of “Edge of Tomorrow.’’ Please share this.