Hopkins and Knightley Join Forces to Tackle King Lear
By Robin Turner
WELSH actor Sir Anthony Hopkins is to play King Lear opposite the leading lady of the moment, Keira Knightley.
Knightley, who will be seen in cinemas next month in the Dylan Thomas biopic The Edge of Love, will play Cordelia, the youngest of Lear’s three daughters, in a spectacular pounds 25m film production of the Shakespeare play.
Gwyneth Paltrow is tipped to take the role of Regan, Lear’s treacherous middle daughter. His eldest daughter, Goneril, is yet to be cast.
The new movie was announced at the Cannes Film Festival and will feature epic battle sequences, according to its makers.
Sir Anthony has had his fair share of leading ladies in his long career, starting with movie legend Katharine Hepburn who played Queen Eleanor alongside Hopkins’ Richard I in the highly acclaimed 1968 movie The Lion in Winter.
And he famously starred alongside Jodie Foster in the 1991 psychological horror The Silence of Lambs with both Hopkins and Foster picking up best actor Oscars.
Yesterday, Western Mail film critic Gary Slaymaker said he was pleased Hopkins has been offered the role on the big screen.
He said: “Hopkins, of course, started off his career in the theatre working with the likes of Laurence Olivier and there were reports he was as good or even better at great Shakesperean roles than Richard Burton whose early performances are still revered.
“But Hopkins was nervous about going on stage and has been much more comfortable in cinema.
“I believe he played Hamlet on the stage but the role of Lear is always restricted for those at the latter end of their career who still want a challenge.
“There is a lot of dialogue for Lear so it will be interesting to see it broken up into a modern movie.
“I think Hopkins will be terrific in the role.”
There have been more than a dozen adaptations of King Lear, most notably a 1983 version starring Sir Laurence Olivier and Dame Diana Rigg for which Olivier won one of his many Emmy awards.
The role of King Lear has been taken on by some of the world’s best actors with Olivier, who first spotted Hopkins’ talent at the National Theatre in London, first playing the role in 1946 at the Old Vic at the age of 39.
Others who have played Lear with distinction include:
Orson Welles in a live 1953 CBS television version;
Ian Holm, who won an Emmy award for his TV portrayal of the king in 1997;
John Gielgud at the Old Vic in 1937 (he also starred in a radio version at the age of 90 along with Derek Jacobi);
Others who have played the role include Stacey Keach, Kevin Kline, and Christopher Plummer (in a Broadway version).
King Lear is believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606, and is considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest works.
The play is based on the semi-legendary King of Britain Leir.
Port Talbot-born Hopkins, who recently re-visited his home town YMCA where he first took to the stage as a spear carrier, has taken Shakespeare to the big screen before.
In 1999, he played the title role of Titus, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus also starring Jessica Lange, Angus Mac Fadyen, Matthew Rhys and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Several other projects were announced at the film festival yesterday, including an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Ben Barnes, currently starring as Prince Caspian in the Narnia sequel.
Leading men for Keira Knightley (born March 26, 1985, Middlesex)
JOHNNY DEPP: Captain Jack Sparrow to Knightley’s Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) (pictured right) plus sequels Dead Man’s Chest (06) and At World’s End (07).
MATHEW MACFADYEN: Darcy to Knightly’s Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice (2005).
CLIVE OWEN: King Arthur to Knightley’s Guinevere in King Arthur (2004).
MATTHEW RHYS: Dylan Thomas to Knightley’s Vera Phillips in Edge of Love (June 2008).
REAL-LIFE LEADING MAN: Actor Rupert Friend (who played Mr Wickham in Pride and Prejudice).
Leading ladies for Sir Anthony (born December 31, 1937, Margam)
EMMA THOMPSON: Mary Kenton to Hopkins’ James Stevens in The Remains of the Day (pictured right) (1993).
JODIE FOSTER: Clarice Starling to Hopkins’ Dr Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
KATHARINE HEPBURN: Queen Eleanor to Hopkins’ Richard I in The Lion in Winter (1968).
CATHERINE ZETA-JONES: The Welsh superstars joined forced in this caper. She plays Elena Montero/Murrietta to Hopkins’ Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro.
REAL-LIFE LEADING LADY: Stella, who he married on St David’s Day 2003
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