It’s highly unlikely that someone with thick pencilled brows and a heavily moustachioed top lip should become a movie star (though it hasn’t stopped Amanda Holden from trying) but Groucho Marx became something of a staple for impressionists but now there’s to be a film made of the most famous of the Marx brothers.
It’s already been announced that Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech), Sienna Miller (21 Bridges) and Charlie Plummer (Moonfall) will star in the 1970s-set feature about comedy icon Groucho Marx’s final years.
This Marx brothers bio-pic will follow Steve (Plummer) as he enters the world of aging comedian Marx (Rush) for his dream job, under the watchful eye of Erin Fleming (Miller) — a younger woman who had taken over Groucho’s personal and professional life. What follows is described as a ‘generational power struggle in a Grouchian comedy of horrors!’.
The project is being pitched at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival with the film produced by Miranda Bailey and Oren Moverman.
Executive producer Stephen Kelliher said: “We were immediately obsessed by the unique and fascinating true story of Raised Eyebrows which shines a light on one of the most complex and compelling relationships in showbiz history. To be making this film with such a prestigious team is a true honour.”
The Messenger and Rampart filmmaker Oren Moverman directs from a script he co-wrote with Steve Stoliar, based on his memoir Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House.
Groucho Marx died in 1977 aged 86 and was the last of the brothers. Best known as part of a trio with Chico and Harpo making a succession of superb comedies in the 1930’s. However if you want to win a pub quiz there were two other brothers Gummo and Zeppo of which the latter dropped out of the act early on in their career followed by Gummo soon after.
