- Title: Hollywood's golden era recreated for television
- Date: 27th July 2017
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (FILE - MARCH 15, 2017) (REUTERS) CLAPPER BOARD CAMERA VARIOUS ACTOR KELSEY GRAMMER ACTING IN SCENE WITH SAUL RUBINEK (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, KELSEY GRAMMER, SAYING: "F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a lot of great books, very interesting character study - he's really good at that and building these characters, men and women alike. What's fun, I guess, about an unfinished novel is you can get to do what you want to with it. He's laid out a really wonderful blue print and you get to finish it." ACTORS LILY COLLINS AND MATT BOMER TALKING TO DIRECTOR ON SET (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS, LILY COLLINS, SAYING: "From every episode to every episode, I don't know where my character is going so I'm kept on my toes just as much as viewers are and it's quite wonderful to have such an amazing base of who the character is and who he, F. Scott Fitzgerald, intended her to be but then to have the freedom and take it and run with it and bring about the historical facts of the period but also to bring in our imagination and then I get to bring in my own accents so it's really quite a cool combination of everything but you don't really get that a lot in characters. I feel really lucky." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, MATT BOMER, SAYING: "I love that our season is only 9 episodes long. It's really an incredible luxury to really expand this world and tell it in a really concise tight way for this medium but also to get to branch out more than you would in the structure of a two, two and a half hour film." EXTERIOR OF LITTLE DOM'S RESTAURANT INTERIOR OF LITTLE DOM'S WITH ACTORS IN SCENE ACTRESS DOMINIQUE MCELLIGOTT ON SET SCREEN SHOWING BOMER AND COLLINS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS, LILY COLLINS, SAYING: "Well it's amazing to be able to shoot in Los Angeles and be able to come to a lot of the original places that would have been around in the 1930s but everything from our hair and make up to our wardrobe, every day immersed in this classic, classic Golden Age of Hollywood, it's amazing. It's a part of history I grew up loving and admiring and wanting to be in in my own head and now I get to live and breathe it in the 21st century with people like Matt and Kelsey and Rosemarie, it's a total dream and with this team we have with the production design and everything it's quite magical."
- Embargoed: 10th August 2017 23:12
- Keywords: Kelsey Grammer Matt Bomer Lily Collins set visit The Last Tycoon F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation unfinished book
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- City: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Television
- Reuters ID: LVA0026RHQR0T
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The final and unfinished novel by acclaimed Jazz Age novelist F.Scott Fitzgerald, "The Last Tycoon", has been reimagined into a 9-part television series for Amazon Studios.
Fitzgerald, also known for "The Great Gatsby" and "Tender is the Night" died in 1940 aged 44 before finishing the story. However, notes existed on where the characters were heading and the completed novel was released posthumously in 1941 by his friend Edmund Wilson.
Set in the Golden Age of Hollywood, the story focuses on the studio system in Hollywood and the lead characters Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer) and Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer) were based on two historical Hollywood players, Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer respectively.
On the Los Feliz Golf Course, wearing 1930s sporting garb back in March, Kelsey Grammer told Reuters "What's fun, I guess, about an unfinished novel is you can get to do what you want to with it. He's laid out a really wonderful blue print and you get to finish it."
Lily Collins plays Brady's daughter Celia, who is trying to break into Hollywood production. "Our story is about strength and tenacity and women in the business that are trying to make a name for themselves like Celia working from the ground up," she said in between takes on set. "It's relevant to today because a lot of women are writing, producing, directing, acting - you don't have to just wear one hat - and Celia specifically was trying to break the mould in the 1930s and there are plenty of those ground-breaking women today who are doing the same thing."
However, Matt Bomer said that sadly Hollywood hasn't changed that much since the 1930s, saying "A lot of it unfortunately is really cropping up all over again so it's a good chance to offer some insight into the past but also with a commentary on the present."
"The Last Tycoon", which was already adapted for television in 1957 and film in 1976, will air on Amazon on July 28. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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