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EXCLUSIVE: Ridley Scott wants to direct a feature biopic about Gertrude Bell, and he has set The Constant Gardener scribe Jeffrey Caine to write the script. Scott will produce with Giannina Facio for Scott Free under the production shingle’s deal at Fox. Born to privilege in England, the Oxford-educated Bell found her calling in the desert while visiting her diplomat uncle in Persia. She became a seminal figure in Middle East politics during the run-up to WWI, acting in roles that ranged from archaeologist to diplomat, photographer and spy. While she helped sort out the borders of Iraq after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, she lost favor with her government for strongly advocating Arab self-rule. The Brits preferred direct access to the oil fields.
Scott and Facio see a strong opportunity for an actress to play the complicated heroine Bell, who thrived during a tumultuous period memorably captured in Lawrence of Arabia. Scott is currently directing the science fiction film Prometheus for Fox.
Scott and Facio are separately developing Gucci, another film he wants to direct that chronicles murder and decadence in the fashion family dynasty. That project is at Fox 2000 and focuses on the volatile relationship between Maurizio Gucci and ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani. She drew a 26-year sentence for plotting his 1995 murder.
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Florence of Arabia!
Love Ridley Scott, think he’s so talented and amazing, but he’s better off leaving this Middle East project alone. It will not make $$$. Americans are so tired of hearing about the fighting / violence in the Mid east….no one here really cares unless they’re Arabs. The people from there are always fighting , finding something to be angry about, dragging everyone into their negative problems, and the world is sick of it! We have our own problems here to worry about! Basically, this topic will not get interests from US audience to make profits! But I do love Ridley Scott! Perhaps he should direct Cleopatra….he likes empowering women:)
Gertrude Bell was a fascinating woman. T.E. Lawrence gets alot of credit in history books for things she really did. Read her wonderful biography, Desert Queen, by Janet Wallach. It’s way overdue for someone to bring her life to the big screen. If she hadn’t been treated like a second class citizen because she was a woman by the British, she could have helped the the Arab people so much more. Her story needs to be told for a wide audience. The men wanted the oil, she wanted to help the Arabs in my opinion. She was received by sheiks who had never received western women , and they respected her.
Americans sick of Arabs?? That’s rich. I think Arabs have far more reason to be sick of Americans!
Should be a good role, hope he goes outside the norm for casting. He should look to TV/theater for some great actresses
I’m sure, like most “strong female” films these days, the list of candidates will consist of one name: Angelina Jolie.
No Jolie. I’d love to see Cate Blanchett in the role. She’s a better fit for Gertrude Bell.
Could this be the project that finally nabs Ridley a Best Director Oscar? He’s done it all in his fantastic career, it would be a damn shame if he doesn’t get that gold statue.
Scott’s best, most influential movies (Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise) are genre films that allow him a chance to use his gifts for visual design. Lately, however, he’s trying to make movies with profound subject matter (Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, Body of Lies) to show what a deep artist he is, but he really isn’t. He needs to go back to the material that has served him best.
I would agree, except for Kingdom of Heaven. Find the directors cut, the recut turns the movie into an amazing 3 hour movie.
I agree about the directors cut of Kingdom. But I also thought Gladiator a great film.
Yes, and you are doubly wrong.
This project is reminiscent of another film project reported by Deadline back in September. The Lady Who Went Too Far, the story of Lady Hester Stanhope, a “female Lawrence of Arabia” during the Napoleonic Wars, was reportedly being developed by one of the The King’s Speech producers, with TKS writer David Seidler attached. One woman was more of a diplomat and the other more of an adventurer, and the time periods are different, but two possibly concurrent movies of actual historical women in the deserts of the Mideast are an interesting coincidence.
Damn! I read The Desert Queen about 10 years ago, and was so blown away by it, I started planning a screenplay. Planning and researching, and never wrote the frickin’ thing. Now Ridley’s doing it! And you’ve gotta know, it’ll be great. It’s an incredible story, and it does put T.E. Lawrence in his place. She was an extraordinary woman, in a man’s world both in her own country, and especially in the Middle East, where she spent a good part of her life, as an archaeologist and later, consultant for the British foreign office during World War I.
I wish Ridley Scott well, I just wish it could’ve been my script!
he should forget this and do Cleopatra.
With Werner Herzog and the talented Naomi Watts, it will be an Epic.
With Scott, and whoever it’ll be as Bell, it can only be a good entertaining film at best.
Period.
It’s a great story, I wrote a script a few years ago, took 2 years. She is fascinating. How about Keira Knightley?she has the right attitude for Bell! Naomi Watts would be good too, I agree.
she was aginst shia
Asking what Gertrude achieved is a bit like asking what did the roman’s ever do for us!
An incredibble life that spanned the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century
A member of the one of the most wealthy families in Britain, as a young woman she travelled all over Europe mixing with aristocracy, attending grand balls hosted by her uncle the British Ambassador in Berlin, as a mountaineer climbed the highest peaks in the Swiss Alps a feat almost unprecedented for woman of her era, the first woman to gain a first class honours degree from Oxford University, travelled on dozens of trips thousands of kilometres throughout the Middle East to the remotest regions to places very rarely visited by Europeans and usually only accompanied by a few trusted Arab guides, fluent in half a dozen languages including Arabic, expert on Arabic poetry, highly respected author, highly respected archaeologist, highly respected cartographer, renowned expert on middle eastern Arab affairs, in the chaos during the early stages of WWI appointed head of “Missing and Wounded Soldier Bureau” based in France, urgently requested to join the British Arab Bureau in Cairo (colleague TE Lawrence “Lawrence of Arabia”), appointed first woman officer in British military intelligence, sent to India to convince the British Viceroy to change war strategy in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) and then unprecedentedly for a woman sent to the British Army fighting the Turks in Mesopotamia to advice the Commanding Generals on changing strategy (imagine the Generals surprise at being told what to do by woman) , appointed army staff officer on payroll with the British Army Mesopotamia accompanying the British Army campaign right to the final victory, takes up residence in Bagdad, unprecedented for a woman appointed the chief political officer to the British Governor of Iraq and significantly responsible for drawing the borders of modern day Iraq and the establishment of Feisal as the first king of modern day Iraq, representative at the Paris Peace Conference, established the Bagdad Archaeological Museum.
Never married; the love o her life a married man was the most senior British office killed at Gallipoli (awarded a Victoria Cross) whose grave was visited by a lone woman during the campaign (the storey goes that all shooting stopped during her visit), unprecedented respect for her by a wide cross section of Arabic tribal and religious leaders, committed suicide in 1924 after many exhausting years living in Bagdad.
Prolific diary and letter writer and recorded her travels on thousands of photos (all on web).
A classic photo depicts 3 people mounted on camels – Gertrude in the centre and at her side Winston Churchill and TE Lawrence.
One of the most remarkable woman in British history, she deserves a movie perhaps more than one.
Cate Blanchett would be ideal to play Gurtrude.
Yes,
Americans are SICK of movies about the Middle East. There is nothing wrong or racist with that statement at all. It’s called over-saturation, and it’s a very real thing. The subject was pushed onto us years ago and has not abated since. I’m so damn tired of Middle East movies, over religious movies, anything of the sort.
You’re an idiot. There aren’t many historical biopics set in the Middle East, which is what this project is. What the hell are you talking about?
Angelina does not have the gravitas to play a role like this. It will end up like a cartoon. Bring on Winslett, Blanchett, or Watson.