Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

'King's Speech' 3rd Go at Abdication Era for Anthony Andrews/Lee Stanley: Look Out for 'Faith-Based' Flicks That Really Aren't

Anthony Andrews has been having a ball enjoying the accolades and awards raining down on "The King's Speech," which he terms "just extraordinary. I changed plans to be a part of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which were preceded by the Directors Guild's — a tremendous achievement for Tom Hooper — and from that point on, the little Ferrari really took off. It's been a whirlwind, even though I'm only a tiny part of it," says the esteemed British actor of "Brideshead Revisited" and myriad other acclaimed productions, who plays Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in the Oscar favorite. "We've had time to hook up again as a cast, and I'm happy to be back together."

Andrews has a distinction from his cast mates, in that this is by no means the first time he's visited the particular piece of history depicted in "The King's Speech."

"It's weird because I've done it three times now — first with Jane Seymour in 'The Woman He Loved.' She and I had the impossible task then of recreating Edward and Mrs. Simpson. It was a lovely made-for-television film, and it had an entirely different slant, looking at the story as a romance, rather than as a political upset, though the abdication had to be in there, of course."

Andrews played George VI himself in the British miniseries "Cambridge Spies," about "the birth of the spy schools that grew up in Cambridge of the 1930s."

And now, as Baldwin, who was determined to avoid war at any cost as Hitler was cranking up his military machine, Andrews found himself back in that time and space again.

"As in the play "The King's Speech," the story is really about the relationship between two guys working to overcome a common problem. It's the strength of the relationship between these two" — Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.

Andrews notes that one scene that got cut had the dignitaries of the day lining up to sign the new king's accession papers and figuratively placing their bets on whether the tongue-tied younger brother could make it.

"It was interesting, but something always has to go when you make a film, and it had to go." Perhaps it will show up as a special feature when the DVD comes out in April.

Andrews is now taking a little break from the revelry. "I'm off back to the U.K. midweek. I want to persuade my dog to think, 'I still have a master,' to say nothing of my children." He jovially notes that his son and two daughters are all but grown up now, "but they still like to see Papa now and again."

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: Nearly seven years have gone by since the unveiling of Mel Gibson's landmark "The Passion of the Christ" — which wound up making $611 million in worldwide box office and caused a scramble toward religious themes by Hollywood moviemakers.

Good and not-so-good, successful and not-so-successful films in the genre have come and gone since then, along with the torturously troubled Gibson's reputation.

So where does the industry stand today? It's a mixed bag to hear filmmaker Lee Stanley tell it. Stanley's outstanding memoir, "Faith in the Land of Make-Believe," is just about to hit stores. It's the multiple Emmy winner's personal saga of redemption and then so much more, or, as he's subtitled it, "What God Can Do ... Even in Hollywood."

Stanley finds that these days, "You hear a lot about faith-based films. I have friends that went to Sundance, and there was a lot of talk about them there, but then you look at some of these movies and realize, 'This is gross and disgusting.' And I'm not a prude by any means, which you see in my book," notes Stanley, whose credits range from the award-winning "Desperate Passage" documentary, in which he took violent juvenile offenders on a breathtaking sailing trip, to the big-screen "Gridiron Gang" starring Dwayne Johnson.

There are plenty of this sort of wolf-in-lamb's clothing movies, if you will, heading toward screens, to hear him tell it.

"I was speaking with an executive a couple of weeks ago, and he said, 'No matter what kind of film you're doing, the next one has to push the edge of the envelope. It's the only way you're going to get anything made.'"

Stanley insists the only pushing he's going to do is toward quality. He has his next film in his sights, but "I will not do it with a studio. I've got to have creative control." The project, "Gompy," is about a 10-year-old boy who can't accept that his grandfather has died, and who runs away to go looking for him — and finds him. Or, that is, he finds a look-alike. At this point, Stanley has a couple of Johnson-level stars he doesn't want to name interested in the unusual role.

Whatever happens, it's a time of celebration for Stanley, who stresses that he's hoping his book inspires others to find and pursue their God-given purposes. This past weekend, he marked his anniversary as two years cancer-free.

THE INDUSTRY EYE: Speaking of faith-based, Corbin Bernsen — whose producing credits include the Christian film "Rust" — is getting ready to shoot a new movie beginning March 3 in Edmonton, Canada. As the "Psych" star and prolific producer describes it, "Barlowe Man" is a coming-of-age story about a boy reconciling his beliefs and non-beliefs, as in God and Santa Claus. Sounds interesting. Some final casting is being completed now.

With Don Cheadle starring and producing, and Kristen Bell aboard as co-star, what more could his Showtime "House of Lies" series — about dueling corporate management consulting firms — need? Not much, but there are a handful of small parts being filled, like that of a girl at his son's school, about 4-foot-8 and 80-90 lbs., according to casting notices. You've heard of type casting. This is size casting.

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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