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September 4, 2002
BBC News - Wales
Scot to play Dylan Thomas
author unavailable
The film will mark the 50th anniversary of Thomas' death
Scottish actor is Dougray
Scott is likely to be cast as poet Dylan Thomas - one of Wales' most
famous exports - in a new film about his turbulent life, according to
newspaper reports.
The film is to be entitled
Map of Love after a collection of Thomas's poems published in 1939.
Mick Jagger is producing
and shooting is due to start in January 2003 and will coincide with the
50th anniversary of the poet's death.
a
| Scott
revealed plans to play the world-renowned poet during a Daily
Telegraph interview at the Venice Film Festival.
Choosing a
Scotsman to play an icon of Welsh culture is certain to raise
eyebrows in some quarters but Scott was at pains to point out:
"I've always loved Dylan Thomas's writing."
Dougray Scott is
noted for his intense |
|
| preparations
for starring roles and is said to be busy putting on weight to
portray the poet. |
For the film Enigma, he
learnt the fundamentals of code-breaking to play Tom Jericho, a
mathematics genius at the centre of the film.
Map of Love will focus on
the Thomas's marriage to the long-suffering Caitlin in 1937 until his
death from alcoholism in 1953.
a
| Emily
Watson, of Breaking The Waves and Angela's Ashes, will play
Caitlin MacNamara.
Cardiff-born Chris
Monger, who directed Hugh Grant in The Englishman Who Went up a
Hill But Came Down a Mountain, has written the script and will
direct the film.
The £10m movie
will be shot on locations that featured in the poet's life,
including the boathouse at Laugharne where he lived and |
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| the
house in Swansea where he was born in 1914. |
Thomas is famous for
having lived the archetypal artist's lifestyle -his fondness for alcohol
is well know.
So it is no surprise that
his favourite drinking haunts, Brown's Hotel at Laugharne, the Uplands
Tavern in Swansea and seafront bars in Mumbles will also feature.
Thomas died in 1953 after
collapsing in a New York hotel and some scenes will be shot in a
Greenwich Village bar.
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