VARIOUS: AMERICAN FILM PREMIERE OF OSCAR WILDE PLAY "AN IDEAL HUSBAND "

Record ID: 705149

  • Title: VARIOUS: AMERICAN FILM PREMIERE OF OSCAR WILDE PLAY "AN IDEAL HUSBAND "
  • Date: 19th June 1999
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CATE BLANCHETT SAYING "Minnie is one of the funniest people I've ever met and Rupert is so dry. One of the reasons why I thought it would be a fun film to do was that I found Oliver (Parker) had such a wicked sense of humour so there was a lot of levity and laughter in the film making and I think tha
  • Embargoed: 4th July 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3T2OBBWJNFK139WT6ZRTJ82V0
  • Story Text: Miramax Films celebrated the American premiere of the recent Cannes Film Festival entry "An Ideal Husband" on Thursday, June 10 in Los Angeles, and its star Rupert Everett attended with the co-star from his new film on his arm, a woman who goes by the name of Madonna.
    Everett and Madonna have become close friends on the set of their current project together called "The Next Best Thing," with British filmmaker John Schlesinger in the director's chair.In fact, the couple supposedly came right from the set to Thursday night's benefit premiere.
    Also in attendance were "An Ideal Husband" director Oliver Parker and Everett's co-star in the film Julianne Moore.Mel Gibson also turned up because his production compnay Icon was one of the producers of the film.
    Based on a classic play by British satirist Oscar Wilde, "An Ideal Husband" is the story of a devoted womanizer and tireless party-goer Arthur Goring, played by Everett, who is famed throughout Victorian era London for his elegance, repartee and refusal to take anything seriously.
    But when called upon by his life-long friend Sir Robert Chiltern, a perfect gentleman and brilliant politician who has become emeshed in a scandal, Arthur immediately rises to the occasion.Sir Robert is played by Jeremy Northam, who previously starred with Gwyneth Paltrow in "Emma" and most recently played in David Mamet's "The Winslow Boy."
    The cast is rounded out by three recently Oscar-nominated actresses."Elizabeth" star Cate Blanchett plays Sir Robert's wife Lady Chiltern, "Boogie Nights" star Julianne Moore is the scheming adventuress Mrs.Cheveley and "Good Will Hunting"
    co-star Minnie Driver plays Sir Robert's sister and biggest threat to Arthur Goring's bachelorhood.
    Director Oliver Parker, whose previous screen work includes an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Othello" with Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh, picked "An Ideal Husband" from all of Wilde's work for screen adaptation because it seemed to have been written in modern times.
    As with most screen adaptations, Parker opened up the play and strengthened the characters and the relationships between the characters.He says he wanted to find a balance between the heightened wit of Wilde and a more realistic portrayal of Victorian era characters.
    "An Ideal Husband" opens in New York and Los Angeles on June 18 and then expands into more theatres throughout the United States on June 25.
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