There is a new project in the works called ‘Stan & Ollie’, from filmmaker Jon S. Baird about the two legendary comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
The report states that comedic actors Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly have been cast to play Laurel & Hardy, respectively, and will begin filming later this year, Firstshowing.net reported.
The project is being produced by Faye Ward’s Fable Pictures for BBC Films. This seems like perfect casting and a great opportunity to bring these two back into contemporary cinema.
The film is not so much about Laurel & Hardy’s time in Hollywood, as it is about their time after Hollywood. And how fame and success fades, but friends do not.
The film will focus on the now-legendary 1953 tour embarked on by the ageing duo. Once the world’s favorite comedy double act, but now diminished by age and their golden era a distant memory, Laurel & Hardy set out on a variety hall tour of Britain in 1953.
As they set out, crisscrossing the country, attendances are disappointingly low. But they have always been able to make each other laugh and as the charm and beauty of their performances shines through their audiences laugh too, and they re-connect with legions of adoring fans, old and new and the tour becomes a hit.
Stan Laurel, a thin Englishman, and Oliver Hardy, a heavyset American, were a comedy double act during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. They became well known during the late 1920s through the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy with Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous Hardy. The two had great influence on Hollywood at the time, and are still remembered quite fondly today.
