Ealing Mob Colourful Remakes Monsieur - Ne Pas Problem

The classic Ealing comedies British cinema's heyday, like Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Lavender Hill Mob could soon be remade for a modern audience, by the French. 60 years after Sir Alec Guinness became a huge star with those films, StudioCanal, France's biggest distributor company, is wanting to revive them as universal stories. This comes hard on the news that a new Carry On comedy is going into UK production aimed at a newer, younger audience.

Universal stories they may be, but Ealing productions combined typically British foibles and eccentricities with scathing satire and social commentary. The comedies were produced by the revered Michael Balcon, who headed Ealing Studios. Part of his company's legacy was, a library of more than 5,000 films, including about 1,400 British titles.

News of the Ealing remakes falls hard on the heels of the revelation from Cannes this week that another British comedy classic, the Carry On series, will be revisited in a modern setting with Carry On London. Victoria Silvstedt, Vinnie Jones and EastEnder Shane Richie will star in the £6.4m movie, which was originally announced three years ago but suffered delays due to budget problems.

Carry On films always employed racous and risque tongue–in-cheek humour compared with the much more cerebral Ealing comedies, but UK company Intadem Films and British producer Chris Chrisafis feel the time is right for Carry On remakes to appeal to a newer younger audience.

Vinnie Jones, 41, will play gangster and club owner Tony Le Berc, nicknamed Two Fingers Tony, while Shane Richie, 42, is to play limo firm boss Lenny, who ferries celebs to showbiz bashes including a starlet heading to an awards ceremony, played by Victoria Silvstedt.

StudioCanal acquired the Ealing film catalogue, including these British cinema gems in 1997. the distributor is now reworking the films in association with various studios, including Universal and Working Title, the British company whose successes include Notting Hill.

Classics such as Kind Hearts and Coronets, Passport to Pimlico and Whisky Galore! are also being revived. One source said that they were being remade because they were such “great stories, and unbelievably modern”.

StudioCanal has had great success worldwide with the original films through DVD releases and television screenings, but has now decided to remake them after realising that there are some audiences who dislike watching black and white films.

The Ealing projects are at the earliest stages of development, so it is not yet own if the new versions would once again be shot at Ealing Studios — synonymous with some of the best of British comedy.