RUPERT EVERETT - EVERETT TO WRITE AND STAR IN WILDE BIOPIC

EVERETT TO WRITE AND STAR IN WILDE BIOPIC

British actor RUPERT EVERETT is writing a biopic of the life of OSCAR WILDE - with himself as the lead. The My Best Friend's Wedding star, who became a best-selling author with his 2006 memoirs, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, slams the "rigorously straight" David Hare for his 1998 version of the story - believing he can do a far better job. Everett says, "Yes, I'm writing a screenplay of a film I'm hoping to get made with myself in it, about Oscar Wilde, after the trial, his life in exile. "It's provisionally titled Sebastian Melmoth, after one of the aliases Wilde adopted after his downfall." And of writer David Hare and director Richard Eyre, who co-created a play based on Wilde's life in exile, The Judas Kiss, the outspoken 48-year-old adds: "..Those people should never ever have thought about attacking the Wilde story, because they have no sympathy, or sensitivity or sensibility... "They're rigorously straight, the two of them. They cast Liam Neeson as Wilde - why? Because he's big and Irish."