Greg Kinnear and Lesley Manville have joined the previously announced duo of Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the true-story dramedy Misbehaviour. Principal photography began today on the film, which is based on the 1970 Miss World contest and its disruption by the Women’s Liberation Movement.
Kinnear will play Bob Hope, who hosted the competition, while Manville will play his wife, Dolores. At the time, Miss World was watched by over 100 million people, but the 1970 instalment saw the Women’s Liberation Movement invade the stage and force the postponement of the competition.
When it resumed, more surprises followed, when the heavy favourite Miss Sweden was bested by Miss Grenada – the first black woman to be crowned Miss World. An excerpt from the film’s official statement astutely sums up the impact: “In a matter of hours, a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head”.
Manville is fresh off an Academy Award nomination for her excellent supporting role in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Phantom Thread, while this will be the first significant film role for Kinnear in a couple of years, although he was recently a major player in the final season of House Of Cards.
The film will shoot in London over the next nine weeks, with Philippa Lowthorpe (Three Girls) directing from an original script written by Rebecca Frayn (The Lady), with revisions by Gaby Chiappe (Their Finest).
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