By Michael Buckley
31 May 2009

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	Jessica Biel and Colin Firth in "Easy Virtue"
	photo by Giles Keyte © 2008, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

At Manhattan's Regency Hotel, on press day for "Easy Virtue," a Sony Classics Pictures Release, starring Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Ben Barnes, I'm with its writer-director Stephan Elliot, best known for 1994's "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," and (female) co-writer Sheridan Jobbins.

Verbal or visual — which does Elliott (whose first name is pronounced STEF-an) consider more important? "They go hand-in-hand. I've seen translations of films I've written, all around the world. The way you word something in one culture will not work in another. But a visual gag works in every culture; the sight gag's a universal language."

His latest film's adapted from a 1925 Noel Coward play (the first to have its premiere on Broadway), starring Jane Cowl, who also played the London engagement. Alfred Hitchcock filmed it, as a silent, in 1928, with Isabel Jeans (Aunt Alicia in "Gigi") in the lead.

"Easy Virtue" originally focused on a 1920s American divorcee, whose artist-friend committed suicide after he was named correspondent in her husband's divorce suit. She then marries the son of an aristocratic British family.

	Kimberley Nixon, Kristin Scott Thomas and Charlotte Riley in "Easy Virtue"
	photo by Giles Keyte © 2008, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Changed to a widow, acquitted of poisoning her older husband, Larita (Biel) marries John Whittaker (Barnes), who brings her to his family's stately home to meet his parents (Firth and Scott Thomas). She and John's mother take an almost instant dislike to each other.

Liberties were taken with Coward's work. Slapstick and a different ending (improbable, but pleasing) were added. A contemporary feeling was achieved, according to Elliott, "through special effects, which you don't usually see in a period film — and the music."

Original music by Marius de Vries mixes with modern numbers ("Car Wash," "Sex Bomb"), and period songs: Coward's "Mad About the Boy," "A Room with a View," "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," Cole Porter's "You Do Something to Me" and "Let's Misbehave."

"My mantra was 'Cabaret,' which had a 'Kit Kat Club Band,'" reveals Elliott. "I created the 'Easy Virtue Orchestra.' Over the end credits, we [verbally] name the musicians. I don't think that's ever been done before in a film."

Peter Barnes, who wrote a first draft of "Easy Virtue," died. Notes Elliott, "His draft was very, very Coward. Ealing [Studio execs] looked at it, and realized it was old-fashioned, and decided to find someone who wouldn't ordinarily do this material. They came to me."

Recalls Elliott, "When they first suggested it, I thought it was a great idea: 'Yeah, not a problem.' But I had come through a terrible accident, and was lying in bed, doped to the eyes with morphine. [Laughs] When the morphine wore off, I realized, 'We can't rewrite Noel Coward.' Sheridan reasoned, 'When else in your life would you ever be given an opportunity like this?'"

Following a 2004 skiing accident in France, rescuers informed Elliott that he had only minutes to live. Days later, he woke up in a hospital with severe injuries to back, legs, and pelvis. Defying the prognosis that he'd never walk again, not only did he succeed (after 18 months), but also he resumed skiing. "I'm mostly titanium [which holds him together]. I'm the bionic man."

Initially, the actors "went into the Coward mode. That becomes — to quote Coward himself: 'Too many dear boys, dear boy.' I'd remind them to 'speak normally,' and steer clear of that clipped [-speech] Coward world.

Third-generation filmmaker Jobbins is a native of Melbourne who's also a journalist, a TV producer-writer-director of short films and music videos, a former actor ("really bad"), and was a research-development director of Latent Image, which co-produced "Priscilla."

Born in Sydney, New South Wales, as a teen Elliott "became one of the forefathers in the wedding-video industry [taping over 900 nuptials]." Assistant director on 30-plus films, "Priscilla" was his second movie as director. He's adapted the film for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – The Musical, which features disco songs, and is now playing in London. "And we're headin' to Broadway. We have to mold some things for American audiences."

"Priscilla," for those who may not know, is the name of the battered pink bus used for travel by three entertainers: a transsexual (Bernadette) and two drag queens (Tick/Mitzi, Adam/Felicia). "The bus cost a million pounds," Elliott tells me. "That was the entire budget for the film."

Making brief appearances in his films was Hitchcock's trademark, and the scribes follow suit. "We're a grumpy, arguing couple," says Jobbins. Adds Elliott, "I'm holding the film's only cigarette holder." It's an easy, but virtuous, homage to Sirs Alfred and Noel: Knights Errant extraordinaire!

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Various and Sundry

Angela Lansbury will be a presenter on the "Tony Awards" (June 7, CBS-TV, 8 PM ET). She's also favored to win for spreading seer magic as the dotty Arcati, that rare medium well done, in Blithe Spirit. Never an Emmy or Oscar winner (despite a total of 21 nominations — two for hosting the Tonys), she's fared better on Broadway: winning four Tonys. Let's hope that Lansbury's crowning glory is celebrated with a fifth!

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You can see Lansbury Tony eve, too. She's on the Ovation network (June 6, 8 PM ET) documentary about the artist formally known as "Mr. Prince" (informally, as "Hal"), a salute to 21-time Tony-winner Harold Prince. Also appearing: Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim, Carol Burnett, Mandy Patinkin, Joel Grey.

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Wolverine Meets Double-O Seven: You may have heard that the Tony-winning Boy from Oz Hugh Jackman is heading back to Broadway, with Daniel Craig (James Bond) in tow. In A Steady Rain, they'll play best-friend Chicago patrolmen, Joey and Denny, described as "bad cop/worse cop," who (during a rainy weekend) give differing accounts of a case involving a teen and a serial cannibal. (It's not a Disney musical.)

Chicago playwright Keith Huff (who, like Craig, is making his NY stage bow) wrote the 100-minute two-character drama, A Steady Rain, which has had several staged readings and workshops.

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Nine has come full circle: From Fellini's 1963 Oscar-winning Best Foreign Film "8½" to a Tony-winning 1982 Best Musical to a 2003 Best Revival to a 2009 movie musical, directed by Rob Marshall ("Chicago", the 2002 Oscar-winning Best Picture). Former Broadway dancer-choreographer-director Marshall is a six-time Tony nominee. The Weinstein Company release opens Nov. 25.

Heading the cast are six Academy Award winners: Daniel Day-Lewis ("My Left Foot," "There Will Be Blood"), Nicole Kidman ("The Hours"), Marion Cotillard ("La vie en rose"), Sophia Loren ("Two Women"), Judi Dench ("Shakespeare in Love"), Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") — plus an Oscar nominee, Kate Hudson ("Almost Famous").

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Elaine Stritch, who could earn a second Emmy this year for her "30 Rock" role (as the mother of Alec Baldwin), is doing The Full Monty at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey June 10-July 12.

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Also June 10-July 12, at Central Park's Delacorte: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night will be a starry night: with (among others) Anne Hathaway, Audra McDonald, Raul Esparza, Julie White.

Hathaway (Viola) plays the White Queen in the upcoming "Alice in Wonderland". Four-time Tony winner McDonald (Olivia) follows her brush with the Bard by returning to "Private Practice". Four-time Tony nominee Esparza (Orsino), up again in 2009 for Speed-the-Plow, is in the film thriller "25/8". Tony winner White (Maria) is in the new film "Breaking Upwards", written by and starring Zoe Lister Jones, with La Chanze, Andrea Martin, Pablo Schreiber, Peter Friedman.

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"Rabbit Hole," which David Lindsay-Abaire adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, goes before the cameras (in New York) in June, with John Cameron Mitchell directing.

It stars Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Tammy Blanchard, Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart. Also appearing: Jon Tenney ("The Closer"), Marylouise Burke, Elizabeth Marvel.

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For its eighth season, the locale of "24" switches to NYC (though still shot in L.A.). Anil Kapoor (the "Slumdog Millionaire" game-show host) joins the cast as a foreign leader, target of an assassination plot. Also new to the cast: Freddie Prinze Jr. (as a Counter Terrorist Unit agent), Jennifer Westfeldt (Wonderful Town), John Boyd (Piano Teacher).

Thankfully, two-time Tony winner (The Heiress, Doubt) Cherry Jones remains in the Oval Office for another day. Recently, she told me, "I'll be back [on "24"], even if it's as a hologram."

President Taylor gets a new Chief of Staff (succeeding Bob Gunton): Chris Diamantopoulos (of "The Starter Wife"). His Broadway credits include replacement stints in Les Miserables (as Marius) and The Full Monty, and he's married to Becki Newton (of "Ugly Betty").

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Storyline producers Craig Zadan/Neil Meron ("Chicago," "Hairspray") have announced the lead for their musical "Footloose" remake, directed by Kenny Ortega ("Dirty Dancing," "High School Musical"): Chace Crawford ("Gossip Girl," "Twelve") will play Ren McCormack (originated, six degrees ago, by Kevin Bacon).

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Fifty years after it starred Kim Stanley and Horst Buchholz on Broadway, "Cheri", based on the Colette novel, reaches the screen (a June 26 Miramax release). It reunites "Dangerous Liaisons" writer Christopher Hampton and director Stephen Frears, and stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend, Kathy Bates, Harriet Walter (Mary Stuart).

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Taped in London (May 2008): Tony winner Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Josh Groban star in the ABBA-Tim Rice "Chess in Concert" (June 17, PBS, 9 PM ET). Featured: the 50-piece City of London Philharmonic, the 100-voice West End Chorus. A three-disc set (two CDs, a DVD, with a synopsis by Rice, photos, sheet music for two songs, and an MP 3 download) comes out mid-June. (Your move.)

Stage to Screens is Playbill.com's monthly column that connects the dots between theatre, film and television projects and people. Contact Michael Buckley at stagetoscreens@aol.com.