Movie Natters: October 2, 2006 Archive

On screaming fans, African dictators, and believing the quality press

Posted at 4:30 PM on October 2, 2006 by Euan Kerr (10 Comments)

Actor Julie Walters and writer/director Jeremy Brock seem to be living in several strange parallel universes. They came into the studios today to talk about their new film "Driving Lessons" which opens here in a couple of weeks.

The film is loosely based on a job Brock had as a teenager when he worked as a cleaner for Dame Peggy Ashcroft. She was a character and he says they became close friends. For the film Brock took the occasionally irascible Dame Peggy and created the hard-drinking cursing-till-the-air-turned-blue Evie. Walters seized the script and the character, and her involvement guaranteed funding for the project.

Along the way they picked up Rupert Grint, he of Ron Weasely fame from the Harry Potter films. Much to Brock and Walter's amazement they were beset at times by legions of female fans desperate for a glimpse of their flame-haired co-star. They admit it can only be good for the film.

Even as Brock is preparing for the release of "Driving Lessons" his directorial debut here in the US, another of his screenplays is about to hit the screen. He adapted the Giles Foden book on the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin for the screenplay "The Last King of Scotland," which opens this weekend.

He says he was wrapping up work on the Amin script as he was in the run-up to shooting "Driving Lessons." When asked whether there was any overlap between the scripts, he says its a testament to the strange world of the screenwriter that he had no problem keeping them absolutely separate.

Speaking of writing though, Julie Walters is about to head back to Britain for a literary event of her own. Her first novel is published later in the month. It's a story of two British actresses who go to visit a friend who is working in New York. She wouldn't say much about it other than one of them has a breakdown and ends up having some unpleasant adventures. She says she doesn't know if it's being published here.

Walters has another writing project on the burner too. The London Times recently reported she got the largest advance ever paid to a showbusiness personality for her memoirs. The paper says she got close to $3 million. She didn't want to talk about it though. "Oh, you can't believe what you read in the press," she said.

"But it was in the London Times!" I said.

"Oh, ESPECIALLY them," she said with the sweetest smile.

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