Deal on New Brideshead Series Reported Imminent

It has been reported in the Daily Mail, Radio Times and Deadline that a deal on a new Brideshead Revisited TV series by the BBC and HBO is imminent. Here’s the story as reported in Tatler:

2020 marks the 75th anniversary of Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh’s great novel. Castle Howard, Sir John Vanbrugh’s Baroque masterpiece, was cast as the titular character and setting for both the 1981 TV adaptation – starring Jeremy Irons – as well as the subsequent feature film. The dome-topped stately home had plans for a Brideshead festival this year to mark the anniversary, which was sadly unable to go ahead as a result of the pandemic.

Today it has been reported that a new television series is in the works, that will be adapted and directed by Luca Guadagnino, of Call Me By Your Name glory. The Italian filmmaker won a screenplay Oscar for the film as well as a best director nomination at the Baftas.

As reported by Baz Bamigboye in the Daily Mail, the drama is for the BBC and HBO – the newspaper has also leaked the casting. They say that Andrew Garfield, who starred in Marianne Elliot’s critically acclaimed production of Angels in America at the National Theatre, will take up the role of artist Charles Ryder (the role first played by Jeremy Irons).

Sebastian Flyte, the glamorous, aristocratic – and teddy-bear loving – character Ryder befriends while at Oxford University will be played by Joe Alwyn, who the viewing public warmed to in The Favourite, alongside Emma Stone. Sebastian’s sister, Lady Julia Flyte, who becomes the object of Charles’ desire, will be played by Rooney Mara.

Ralph Fiennes, who Guadagnino recently worked with in A Bigger Splash (also starring Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson) will reportedly play the patriarch of the Flyte family, Lord Marchmain, and Cate Blanchett is said to be in negotiations to play their pious mother, Lady Marchmain.

Other roles are still in the process of being cast – the question remains, will Castle Howard be used as a location for a third time? They will reportedly start filming in the UK and Venice next year.

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