Orlando Bloom to star as the young Robert Graves in “racy” film

AFTER 13 years in development it appears that the script for a film about the early days of the late war poet and writer Robert Graves, who lived and died in Deya, is ready and the movie The Laureate, starring Orlando Bloom as the young Graves, is scheduled to hit the big screens next year.

American writer and director William Nunez has penned the script and he will direct the film which features a British cast with British actress Imogen Poots playing Graves's “collaborator/lover”, the American poet Laura Riding and Irish actress Kerry Condon, Graves's first wife Nacy Nicholson.

This week, the Daily Telegraph claimed that the “Robert Graves film will show the writer in a racy new light” and yesterday, William Graves, one of the sons of the late war poet and head of The Robert Graves Foundation, admitted that his father, Riding and Nicholson did live a “ménage à trois” lifestyle in bohemian London in the 20's.

William, who has been involved in the development of the script over the years told the Bulletin yesterday that the last draft he saw was about five years ago and he is about to see the final draft. “I've been involved in getting the historical facts right, the names, the titles of his books, the swear words used at the time and the costumes. These are paramount when making a period a piece. To be honest, I'm not too worried about the drama content. “Quite often it's what's not said that really tells the story in these kinds of films,” he said. “Some years back, a whole crew and the director came over to the island to measure the house where he lived etc. beacuse part of the film, does, or at least did, feature the period between 1929 and 1936 when Robert lived with Laura here in Deya so I presume some filming will obviously be done on the island if that period remains in the script. “But, during that period there was no sex between Robert and Laura so, if the film is going to be racy, they're going to have the get the sex in early on,” he joked. “The film was initially going to be called Poetic Unreason, I'm not too sure what The Laureate is supposed to mean,” he added.
The film is expected to focus on Robert's colouful life in London, then Cairo, London and Majorca.
William revealed that Riding eventually tried to commit suicide back in London and it was because of that they all fled to Majorca.

ROBERT GRAVES FOUNDATION
William admits that his father's life was fascinating and complicated during the period on which the film is going to centre.
The film, which has also been described as “provocative” is due to start filming in Ireland later this year under the directorship of William Nunez who used to be a big player for the Turner Pictures empire, which later became Warner Bros. “I'm reasonably happy with what I've seen of the script so far and I think Orlando Bloom is a good choice of actor. “He's a great actor and seems a sensitive kind of bloke,” William added. “If they do come and film at the house (which William and the Robert Graves Foundation have spent the past six years restoring to its former glory) they better make it worth our while. “I would also like to see The Robert Graves Foundation on the credits once it is all finished,” William Graves said.