Stephen Frears is no stranger to films about music or real people, and he’s combining those chunks of his directorial career for Florence. He’s just secured Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant to star in the film.
Florence will chronicle the life of Florence Foster Jenkins, an heiress and socialite whose driving passion was opera. Specifically, she wanted to get on stage and sing, but was held back by the fact that she could barely warble a correct note.
Yet while Florence was convinced that the voice she heard in her head was mellifluous and lovely to all, her partner/manager, aristocratic actor St. Clair Bayfield (Grant) became determined to protect that delusion, convincing everyone around them to support her. He ended up organising a Carnegie Hall concert for her in 1944, which racked up ticket sales of more than 3,000. Jenkins died a month later – from what we can assume was natural causes, not a member of the audience from the concert tracking her down. Nicholas Martin wrote the script for the film, and Frears will crack on with it once he finishes work on his untitled Lance Armstrong biopic.