Hi all! Damianista here. This week’s screenwriter and casting director for our ‘Dream Role for Damian Lewis’ series is Suzanne, who happens to be one of the early Damian bunnies! Huge thanks go to her for taking the time to give us this lovely story.
First, I would like to thank everyone for the privilege of being Damian’s dream casting director!! Ok, now on to it…
So, I have always had an idea in the back of my mind for Damian since I had seen him in most of his early movies. The dream role for me would be for him to play the man who drew this:
[A fitting tribute to the “Bunnies” Methinks!]
Namely, the artist Albrecht Dürer, who looks like this:
I think it’s almost an uncanny physical similarity between them! ( & thus far, I must admit, Damian playing Henry VIII in Wolf Hall was really close to this realization for me 😊 )
Dürer lived in the 15th to 16th century and was a master artist whose contemporaries were Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo. Although less well known to the general modern day non-creatives, he is hugely responsible for many components of art as we know it today, particularly in the techniques of perspective and proportions seen in the influence of the “Northern” Renaissance.
If I had the choice, it would be filmed with the cinematic look of “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and/or the brilliant day lighting of the film “The Illusionist”. (A great movie which includes Paul Giamatti).
Plotwise, it would be good as a drama but also might be good as a comedy. Something where (and this would be tongue in cheek as Damian is such as well known actor now) — Damian/Dürer is not as well known as his Italian contemporaries who are all the artistic Renaissance rage (Leonardo DiCaprio as Leonardo Da Vinci) and (Diego Klattenhoff or Corey Stoll) as Michelangelo. Morena Baccarin could be the iconic Mona Lisa painted by Leo, who has somehow been previously engaged/betrothed to Dürer. Dürer, piqued by the rejection, travels to Italy to try to win Mona Lisa back (subtler shades of Soames pops into my mind)…
…all the while painting the best art of his life for clients that have entertained Mona and Leo as their guests. Paul Giamatti could play Dürer’s artistic agent hired by Dürer’s wife (Claire Danes) (ok, now I’m being even more tongue in cheek, but hey, this is my dream film). Paul as the agent at the behest of Agnes tries desperately to get Dürer to return to Bavaria where his art has become a sensation in its own right…
Ok, I’m stopping now before this turns into pages of Fan Fic. End of the sketch for now 😉
