Russell Brand plays a lothario who's about to have an arranged marriage with a wealthy heiress but is really in love with a shoplifter. British actress Helen Mirren will star's opposite Brand, playing John Gielgud's part as Arthur's valet, with Jennifer Garner taking the part of the heiress Susan Johnson and Nick Nolte her religious father. Brand's character stands to inherit a fortune if he marries her but he wants to be with Linda Marolla, the woman he loves played by 26-year-old Greta Gerwig.While the images are your typical first look photos the article was very interesting because it revealed how involved the Modern Family writers were in the script. It seems that director Jason Winer – who helmed thirteen episodes of Modern Family during it’s first season – had seven of the writers do a line-by-line dialogue tuneup. Some of the other interesting things were:
- Greta Gerwig’s first day of shooting was a largely improvised scene in front of the 42nd Street exit of Grand Central Terminal during Monday-morning rush hour
- Arthur is still very rich and very drunk
- Peter Baynham, the original writer, is on set every day doing rewrites
- Since Russell Brand is now clean and sober, to get into character, he takes a sniff of booze before filming
- Brand watched James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story, Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas, and the originalArthur before filming began.
The original film won two Oscars and earned Dudley Moore a nomination for best actor.
