Following his success with the TV movie Longford (which won three BAFTAs and three Golden Globes), the HBO mini-series John Adams (four Golden Globes and 11 Emmys), and the recent movie The Damned United, director Tom Adams is keeping with the period drama setting for his next film, The King’s Speech.
It was announced a while ago that the movie will star Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, who will play King George VI and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue, who helped the new monarch to lose his stammer and become a more confident leader after his was thrust onto the throne by his brother’s abdication in the 1930s.
With the film just starting to shoot, a load more acting luminaries have been aded to the cast, with THR reporting that the new additions include Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Guy Pearce, Derek Jacobi, Timothy Spall and Michael Gambon, which, if nothing else, suggests that at least most of the cast of Harry Potter won’t be completely out of work following the final two Hogwarts movies.
There’s no news on who all these people might play, although rumours suggest Bonham Carter may play Queen Elizabeth (aka The Queen Mother). Whoever they’ll all be in the film, it’s certainly a superb cast and should help ensure Hooper continues with his rather impressive run of period movies. It’ll also be interesting to see how the Royal Family react, as the Queen has always been very protective of her father, knowing the pressures he faced when he ascended to the throne. Well, we might want to to know their reaction, but as with the movie The Queen, they’ll probably say nothing, the spoil sports.