The last time Dylan Thomas was in a film might have been "Dangerous Minds," when Michelle Pfeiffer taught all the hoodlums to read. Now he may get his legitimate due in a biopic from writer/director Mick Davis. Inspired by Thomas’s play "Under Milk Wood," Davis’s vision is a tad avant-garde.
"It’s Dylan in the Chelsea Hotel freaking out and constantly seeing things and going back in flashes to his life and different things that happened," said Davis. "After ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, it’s a freaky take on it."
"Rome"’s Kevin McKidd has been cast as Dylan Thomas with Kelly Reilly as his wife Caitlin. Davis will shoot on location in Wales where Thomas lived. The film may have different titles around the world.
"Actually, it’s called Dylan but you can’t call it that in the states because everybody’s going to think it’s Bob Dylan. I’ll call it something else."
There may be more Dylan Thomas movies coming out to compete with Davis’s too. "There’s a glut of them. It’s like Capote. There’s always three or four at the same time." [Keira Knightley and Cillian Murphy are set to star in one such Dylan biopic, "The Best Time Of Our Lives," written by Knightley’s mother Sharman MacDonald; Sienna Miller will also co-star, replacing Lindsay Lohan.]
Davis’s Dylan goes into production next year.
