A new film version of the popular family musical Oliver! is set to go into production, with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell director Toby Haynes in charge of the cameras, it has been reported.
According to the Daily Mail’s showbiz reporter Baz Bamigboye, theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh has teamed up with powerhouse UK film outfit Working Title to get a long-mulled over film production off the ground. (The same team partnered for the blockbusting 2012 adaptation of stage musical Les Miserables.) The original suggestion was that Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry may have taken the director’s chair, but that is apparently not the case. Aside from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Haynes has also directed episodes of Sherlock, Doctor Who and Being Human. This would be his feature film debut.
Oliver!, with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, first premiered at the New (now Noel Coward) Theatre in the West End in 1960, and enjoyed spectacular runs in both London and New York. The celebrated film adaptation, directed by Carol Reed and starring Ron Moody as Fagin and eight-year-old Mark Lester as Oliver, was released in 1968 and won six Oscars, including best picture and best director for Reed. The stage musical has been regularly revived since then, with Jonathan Pryce and Rowan Atkinson playing Fagin in the 1994 and 2009 revivals respectively.
No casting details have yet been announced. According to the report, the producers will go on an extensive hunt to find the juvenile leads – played in the film by Lester and Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger.
