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Laurel and Hardy biopic in the works

Laurel and Hardy biopic in the works

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Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, the original buddy comedy team, will finally get the big screen treatment. Jon S. Baird (Filth)  is set to direct this project, describing it as  “really a love story between two guys who come to realize they can’t live without each other. It’s a really, really beautiful tale.” Screenwriter Jeff Pope, who won an Oscar for Philomena, focused on their “farewell tour” of 1953, where Hardy suffered a heart attack. The working title is Stan and Ollie.

Laurel and Hardy (not to be confused with Charlie Chaplin or Abbott and Costello) first worked together in the 1921 short “Lucky Dog,” but became features in 1927 while working for Hal Roach Studios. They worked together in over 100 projects.

Towed In A Hole

Baird discussed the project further. “It also tells the story of their off-screen personas, which were quite different to what people would imagine knowing their on-screen ones…Stan was very much the driving force, Ollie was more relaxed, he just loved golfing and betting on the horses. Once he’d finish for the day, he’d be off, and though he would be consulted on the script ideas when they were rehearsing, he didn’t write the stuff, Stan wrote everything, I think he was a real tortured genius…So, Stan Laurel was particularly different from his on-screen persona, and that was the thing I found really fascinating when I started reading the script.”

Hopefully it will be better than the Three Stooges biopic. If you’ve never seen Laurel and Hardy, watch.

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