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The Limehouse Golem starring Bill Nighy, Olivia Cooke & Douglas Booth: Meet the Characters #book2movies
I wasn’t actually planning to read the Victorian Gothic British thriller The Limehouse Golem by Peter Ackroyd before I read the free sample on my Nook, but I hit the Buy Now button by mistake. In for a penny, in for a pound. I think that’s what what the Brits say, and what I call a happy accident. Getting to know these characters—and the truly grisly London crimes Peter Ackroyd details in his book—I’m really looking forward to seeing The Limehouse Golem translated onto the screen. Starring Bill Nighy, Olivia Cooke & Douglas Booth, The Limehouse Golem is one of the 9 Movies Based on a Book I unearthed to watch this month; it comes out this week on September 8th and I am ready. The casting is perfection! And the writing in the novel by Peter Ackroyd is so fresh and alive, bringing the period to life. The story of the search for a serial killer who achieves mythic proportions intersects with that of a young music hall performer on trial for poisoning her husband. I hope the script by Jane Goldman (Xmen, Kingsmen, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children) is as crisp. Juan Carlos Medina—currently working on A Discovery of Witches starring Matthew Goode (4th day in a row for a Matthew Goode mention, if you’re counting) and Teresa Palmer.
Bill Nighy is Inspector John Kildare
Bill Nighy is the police inspector, intent on getting his man, a serial killer plaguing the fog shrouded streets of London in the 1880’s. Unsuccessful as we start the book—‘There was even a limerick published in the Illustrated Sun which attacked the senior officer in the case:
Chief Inspector Kildare
Couldn’t catch a tame bear,
He told ’em
He would find the Golem
But he’s ended up with thin air.
Olivia Cooke is Elizabeth Cree on trial for poisoning her husband
The young Elizabeth—Lambeth Marsh Lizzie—is captivated by the world of the music halls
‘I believe that in a past life I must have been a great actress. As soon as I walked upon the stage with Doris even before the gas had been lit, I felt quite at my ease. Of course in those early days I was merely the prompter and play-copier, no higher in station than the general utility man or the callboy—I never thought to sing or dance, any more than the limelight man would dream of becoming a comic patterer. But, as I said, the stage was my element.
Douglas Booth is Dan Leno, a music hall star
‘The boy in the clothes of the old woman now lifted up his skirt and began to perform a clog dance, while the little theater seemed to glow with the force of his personality. Elizabeth understood now that this must be the Dan Leno she had seen on the bills. She did not know how long his act continued, but afterwards, she was scarcely aware of the singing duets, the acrobats and the colored minstrels. She was conscious only of the strange comedy with which Leno had assuaged the misery of her life.
Eddie Marsan is the creepy 'Uncle'
‘My ‘‘uncle’’ was still hovering about me, and Dan Leno gave him a stern look before introducing him to me. ‘‘Allow me to present Tommy Farr. Agent, author, actor, comic acrobat and manager.’’ ‘‘Uncle’’ bowed to me. ‘‘He's the one who hands out the spondulicks.’’
‘‘The dear girl doesn’t understand, Dan. You, see, dear, he means the baksheesh.’’
‘‘Sir?’’
‘‘The bustle. The bounce. The money.’’
Sam Reid is John Cree
‘September 6, 1880: It was a fine bright morning, and I could feel a murder coming on.
It is captivating stuff! Real life figures like George Gissing (the only part that gets a bit weedy in the book) and Karl Marx. I’m not quite finished the novel but I’ll complete it before I see it. I’m hesitant to say too much about the story—told through journals and court testimony—in case the filmmakers have changed the structure, what we know and when we know it. Any of you planning on seeing the movie? Let’s give the trailer a look.
The Limehouse Golem comes out September 8th, and here in Los Angeles is playing at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills.