The developing Oliver Twist film has nothing to do with the famous musical, but those with a love for its show tunes can take heart. Director Vadim Jean is preparing a musical biopic of Oliver!'s composer and lyricist Lionel Bart. Geoffrey Rush has just signed on to play Bart in Consider Yourself, and he'll be joined in the cast by Stephen Fry, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan, Matt Lucas and Michelle Dockery. Al Weaver will play Bart / Rush as a younger man.
Bart's is a rags-to-riches-to-rags story, more or less. From inauspicious beginnings in Stepney, he became one of the most successful songwriters in Britain, despite no formal musical training. Starting out writing pop hits (Cliff Richard's Living Doll was one of Bart's) he eventually moved on to musical theatre, and became the first person ever to have three West End productions running at the same time.
Later productions like Twang! (based on the Robin Hood legend), La Strada (based on Fellini's film) and Lionel! (an autobiographical musical!) were flops however, and he lost fortunes pouring money into keeping them going. He died in 1999, a bit better off following an Oliver! revival and some work writing jingles for commercials, but far from the powerhouse name he had once been.
Consider Yourself is not based on Lionel!, nor on It's A Fine Life, another stage musical biopic of Bart written in 2006 by Chris Bond. This one comes courtesy of Elliot Davis (Loserville: The Musical), with choreographer Peter Darling (Billy Elliott: The Musical) also involved.
The BBC have been part of Consider Yourself's development process, and the film's producers will be looking for further deals in at the European Film Market in Berlin next month.