2010: The Year of Knightley?

It’s hard to believe we’re already 3 months into 2010, which means, according to mine and Rope of Silicon’s standards, it is not too early to start predicting next year’s Oscar race. While sizing up the potential contenders, I came across an interesting trend: several of them count the lovely Keira Knightley among their cast.

I know, I know, she is not the most widely beloved actress, but personally I am a fan (I’m a sucker for a good period piece). I will say, however, that her work as of late has been upsettingly one-note. How many times are we going to have to see her play women of the 18th or 19th Century who are tragically bogged down by the archaic rules and restrictions of British society before we can all agree that she does it like no one else? (I’m sorry Emily Blunt, I love you, but I almost fell asleep during The Young Victoria.)

Well luckily it seems that such a time is upon us. I am happy to say that her two most near-at-hand films BOTH take place in the 21st Century. To learn more about them and her other upcoming projects slated for a 2010 release, please follow the jump cut.





Pictured: Guillaume Canet and Keira Knightley


Last Night

This one I am VERY excited about, but it is also possibly never going to see the light of day. Ever since Miramax you know…stopped existing, their projects have been indefinitely shelved. Unfortunately Last Night found itself among these. But I can’t see why they won’t want to produce it, it’s got Knightley, Sam Worthington (of Avatar), Eva Mendes, and Guillaume Canet (and god knows American audiences can do with a little more acquaintance with Guillaume Canet). I’ve read the script and while it sounds more appropriate as the subject for a play, with these actors it could make for a quality film.

The plot involves a married couple in turmoil (Knightley and Worthington) spending a night apart and finding themselves tempted by the fruits of another. Worthington by a sexy new colleague (Mendes) and Knightley by a former flame with whom the sparks have clearly not died (Canet). Not only would this be a great vehicle to see Knightley in modern dress, but also for American audiences to see what Sam Worthington is really made of. Sure here he’s the big-time action star of films like Avatar, Terminator: Salvation, and Clash of the Titans, but in his native Australia he’s much more known for his intense dramatic work in independent films such as Somersault, in which he played opposite Abbie Cornish. Hopefully another studio will buy this one up, it’d be a shame to see it get shelved.




Pictured: Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley on the set

London Boulevard

To be honest I don’t really know a whole lot about this movie, but it seems like nobody really does so that makes me feel better. The only concrete plot outline we have says that it’s about a reclusive actress who befriends and possibly falls in love with a London criminal who has recently been released from jail. Knightley will obviously play the actress with Colin Farrell as the criminal. The rest of the cast is great as well: Ray Winstone, David Thewlis, Anna Friel, Jamie Campbell Bower…lots of good names of actors we don’t see enough of.




Pictured: Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield

Never Let Me Go

Now talk about champion-status casts. As far as British actresses go for the 20-30 generation, this movie pretty much has my holy trinity: Knightley, Mulligan, and Hawkins. I’m hopefully going to get my hands on a copy of the novel over the summer, but what I know of the plot is fairly minimal. From what I understand it’s about three former school chums (the aforementioned trinity) who come back together to deal with the secrets that have bonded them over the years. There may or may not be some sort of science-fiction element to it, and it may or may not take place in the future…so…yeah. Need to do some more research oh that front. But I am very keen to see this.



The Beautiful and the Damned

And finally, in what is probably the most exciting of all of these films, we come to The Beautiful and the Damned, which tells the story of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read the script ages ago, and it had me glued from beginning to end. To be honest, the focus of it is very much so on Zelda and in many ways is unfairly cruel to Scott, but you hear so much about what a shrew she was that I’m more than happy to see her side of the story. It’s no secret that a considerable amount of his female characters are carbon copies of various aspects of Zelda’s personality, some uttering words verbatim from her diaries. What Scott did with her words and her life would, I think, naturally lead someone to the fate she ultimately suffered, regardless of whether or not they deserved such treatment. But the most exciting part of this is the casting. Knightley as Zelda and LEO AS SCOTT. UGH. PERFECTION. Now, to be fair, he is only rumored, and he was rumored over a year ago but then dropped out inexplicably (probably due to conflicts with the 20-odd other projects he has lined up) but the fact that he is apparently now on board and they seem to really want to get on with production bodes well. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this one.