For those of you seeking the Scarlet Pimpernel, you won’t have far to look if Dominick Fairbanks gets his way. Fairbanks, the heir to Hollywood legends Douglas Sr. and Douglas Jr., is planning to make The Scarlet Pimpernel his first production for his recently formed company Fairbanks Productions.
Hollywood Reporter states that Fairbanks is looking at a $120 million dollar budget for the French Revolution-era swashbuckler, and already has his eye on who he wants to play the famous fop: Neil Jackson.
Jackson has appeared in supporting roles in several films, notably Alexander and Quantum of Solace, and shared co-lead with Stephen Dorff in the acclaimed The Passage.
Executive producer James Black, who is teaming with Fairbanks on this production, says they want to update the character in the same manner as Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, and is hoping to start filming in the latter half of 2011 in Europe.
The Scarlet Pimpernel, for those who don’t know, was a British aristocrat who assumed a foppish identity to hide his masked-avenger persona, during the beginning of the French Revolution. Originally published as a stage play in 1903 the character really took off with the 1905 publication of the book. Hollywood produced many films with the character, most famously portrayed by Leslie Howard.