{"id":50046,"date":"2012-05-18T09:39:10","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T13:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=50046"},"modified":"2012-05-18T09:51:44","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T13:51:44","slug":"martin-scorcese-working-up-rolls-royce-biopic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2012\/05\/martin-scorcese-working-up-rolls-royce-biopic\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Scorcese Working up Rolls-Royce Biopic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Director Martin Scorcese is set to turn to the Rolls-Royce saga.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With his long list of successful films, you might Martin Scorcese to be riding to work in a Rolls-Royce, but it seems he plans to make his next film about the classic luxury brand \u2013 or, more precisely, about its early years and the people who transformed Rolls into as much a legend as an automobile company.<\/p>\n

Best known for violent, if thought-provoking works like Raging Bull and Goodfellas, Scorcese occasionally has been known to take a turn towards romantic period pieces, such as Age of Innocence and last year\u2019s acclaimed Hugo. So, don\u2019t expect a lot of explosions and violence when the 69-year-old director teams up with Britain\u2019s Lord Attenborough \u2013 himself best known for the Academy Award winner Gandhi.<\/p>\n

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Your News Source!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nonetheless, it has all the makings of a classic melodrama, with illicit love affairs, fancy costumes and did we mention it just might have an explosion or two?<\/p>\n

The film is set to follow the lives of founders Charles Rolls and Henry Royce but seems ripe for the melodramatic touch thanks to the illicit love affair between Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and his secretary Eleanor Thornton.\u00a0 Don\u2019t recognize her name?\u00a0 She wound up serving as the model for the \u201cSpirit of Ecstasy\u201d that sits atop the bonnet \u2013 as the Brits prefer it \u2013 of every Rolls-Royce.<\/p>\n

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Mssrs. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce (or is it the other way around?).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for Lord Montagu, less formally known as John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, he was not only a member of the House of Lords but an early proponent of the automobile, even launched one of Britain\u2019s first motoring magazines, the monthly Car.<\/p>\n

Early on, there was strong resistance to the horseless carriage in the U.K., one law requiring a flagman to proceed each vehicle on foot to alert pedestrians and horse riders so they would not be spooked by the noisy, smelly contraptions.\u00a0 Montagu set out to change all that, serving on the Road Board, helping introduce license plates and, in 1899, driving the first automobile, a Daimler, into the yard of the House of Commons.<\/p>\n

It was one of Montagu\u2019s friends, artist Charles Sykes, who created the Spirit of Ecstasy.<\/p>\n

“When I read the story of \u2018Silver Ghost’, I was mesmerised,” Scorsese said. “I immediately thought this is a picture that has to be made. I didn’t hesitate for a moment.”<\/p>\n

Actually, Scorcese will get his chance to work in at least one noisy explosion.\u00a0 Thornton, who went to work for Lord Montagu at 22 \u2013 soon bearing an illegitimate daughter she was forced to put up for adoption \u2013 was later riding with her regal paramour through the Mediterranean on the way to India when, on December 30, 1915, their ship, the SS Persia was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. The young aspiring actress was among 100s who drowned. Lord Montagu survived.<\/p>\n

But the Mssrs Rolls and Royce also add some spice to the tale.\u00a0 Charles Rolls was also an early aviation pioneer and died in a 1910 plane crash at the age of only 32.\u00a0 Henry Royce made it to the much more ripe old age of 70, living by the creed, \u201cWhatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble,” and earning himself a knighthood.<\/p>\n

The screenplay was pulled together by writer Sharman Macdonald \u2013 who just happens to be Kiera Knightley\u2019s mother. And, according to a report in Britain\u2019s Top Gear, Christian Bale is rumored to be in the running to play the dashing Lord Montagu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With his long list of successful films, you might Martin Scorcese to be riding to work in a Rolls-Royce, but it seems he plans to make his next film about the classic luxury brand \u2013 or, more precisely, about its early years and the people who transformed Rolls into as much a legend as an automobile company. TheDetroitBureau.com has the story of cars, illicit love and even a few scenes of cinematic violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50046"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=50046"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=50046"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=50046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}