Geoffrey Rush to play Groucho Marx
Geoffrey Rush is set to play legendary Jewish comedian Julius Henry Marx.
AUSTRALIAN Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush is set to don the mask, as it were, of legendary Jewish comedian Julius Henry Marx, better known as “Groucho”.
The movie, to be directed by Israeli-American filmmaker Oren Moverman, is based on Steve Stoliar’s memoir Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House.
The memoir is about Stoliar’s time working with Marx as his “personal secretary and archivist” during the “last years” of Groucho’s life, according to Stoliar’s website.
The adaptation will also feature Charlie Plummer as Stoliar, and Siena Miller as Marx’s secretary-turned-manager Erin Fleming.
As the story goes, Fleming was also rumoured to have been Marx’s girlfriend, and was credited with greatly boosting Marx’s popularity in his later years, and was also accused of cheating and abusing the increasingly frail man – and who assigned Stoliar to work with Marx.
The movie will be produced by Cold Iron Pictures and Moverman, who was quoted in deadline.com saying, “It’s a pleasure and an honour and a responsibility and probably something else to work with this amazing cast on a story I hope will reintroduce the genius of Groucho Marx in a new, provocative, entertaining way all these years later.”
According to deadline.com, the movie will cover “obsession, love, celebrity, mental illness, family and Hollywood”. Added Moverman, “Done right, we will screw it up royally.”
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