Emma Thompson to write "My Fair Lady" film remake

From Wenn.com:

'British actress Emma Thompson has been commissioned to pen a screenplay for a My Fair Lady remake.

The Howards End star won an Oscar for adapting Sense + Sensibility for the big screen and now she's tackling George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion musical.

But she admits the less-sweet version of the Audrey Hepburn movie musical won't be completed anytime soon.

She tells Parade magazine, "I'm a Luddite, and I write longhand with an old fountain pen."

That said, Thompson is the only person to have won Academy Awards for both acting and screenwriting.'

This venture has gotten somewhat interesting, wouldn't you agree? While the 1964 film adaptation was a colossal success, winning 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, it appears that many feel the film does not hold up well today. Suffice it to say, given the titles that have been remade recently, I wouldn't have thought a classic musical would be considered. The film is a bit long, but has plenty of charms (even if I feel that Rex Harrison is phoning it in compared to his performances on the original Broadway and London cast albums), but I miss many of the elements of the stage musical, including the orchestrations of Robert Russell Bennett and especially the exuberant dance arrangements of Trude Rittman. Now, let's see if they can cast actors who sing well. Thompson is well-established as a writer of exorbitant wit, humanity and charm: the aforementioned Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility and Nanny McPhee come readily to mind. I'm suddenly very curious to know what comes of this project. Meanwhile, I'm very excited to see Thompson in Brideshead Revisited this summer (Emma Thompson in a British period film? Perhaps it's time for a Howards End/The Remains of the Day marathon). Now if someone could only get her in a stage production of Night Music, I think I'd be all set ;)