Anthony Hopkins is set to play another real-life character. This time, he'll transform into the composer George Frideric Handel in the upcoming feature biopic, The King of Covent Garden, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Academy Award-winning actor has played real historical figures from Adolf Hitler in the 1981 TV movie The Bunker to Richard Nixon in 1995's Nixon to Alfred Hitchcock in 2012's Hitchcock to Sigmund Freud in 2023's Freud's Last Session.
Filmmaker Andrew Levitas will direct the biopic. The film will focus on the German-British Baroque composer's time when he created his arguably most famous work, the masterpiece Messiah, in 1741. Tim Slover wrote the script, while Dan Lupovitz and Kevan Van Thompson will serve as producers.
Anthony Hopkins and historical figures
Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherin Jenkins will serve as an executive producer on the film as well its musical advisor. Peter Touche will also EP alongside Jenkins.
The movie is pitched as “a powerfully majestic celebration of genius breaking all the rules to create an anthem inspiring the popular imagination of global audiences.” The film will be available for buyers at the Cannes Film Market later in the month. The movie is looking at a late 2025 release date.
Levitas described the story as hinging on “an unlikely pair, who meet each other at their lowest points, and together create a magnificent never-heard-before ‘sound for the people': the groundbreaking masterpiece Messiah, the annual global bestseller for close to 300 years.”
He also described Slover's script as “populated by passionate, real-life experience in all its color and dirt, creating a riveting human story with surprising contemporary relevancy, universal human connectivity and spiritual uplift.”
Handel was famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems concerti grossi and organ concertos. The composer was trained in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt and worked in both Hamburg and Italy before he settled in London 1712. He became a naturalized British subject in 1727.
His music forms one of the peaks of the “high baroque” style, which developed Italian opera. He created the English oratorio and organ concerto, which were new styles in English church music.
The King of Covent Garden and Messiah
The composer earned the moniker King of Covent Garden when he started working with John Rich and created his third company at the Covent Garden Theatre. His companies have been credited with supplying the English nobility with Italian opera. After a physical breakdown in 1737, he changed creative directions and transitioned to creating English choral works for the middle class.
Messiah was the last Italian opera Handel ever composed. His Zadok the Priest has been performed every time a British monarch is crowned since 1727. He died in 1759 and was given a Westminster Abbey state funeral.
Given that Messiah is Handel's most famous and most recognizable piece, most people may not be familiar with the piece by name. However, one has definitely heard the iconic “Hallelujah” usually sung by choirs. That is the the chorus of Handel's Messiah.
Hopkins was last seen as the voice of Jimmy, a mechanical knight in Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon movies on Netflix. The actor has several projects in the pipeline, including the Roland Emmerich gladiator series on Peacock, Those About To Die.
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