SUNSET BOULEVARD's Christopher Hampton to Write Lloyd Webber's Profumo Affair Musical?

Andrew Lloyd Webber is developing a musical about the Stephen Ward, the man who introduced call girl Christine Keeler to war secretary John Profumo. The resulting Profumo Affair scandal began the end of Harold MacMillan's government in 1960s Britain. According to a post by Michael Riedel on nypost.com, SUNSET BOULEVARD scriptwriter Christopher Hampton may be asked to write the script for Lloyd Webber's new project.

"[The Profumo Affair] was the first time the British establishment cracked,” Lloyd Webber told Riedel. “Soon after, The Beatles appeared and changed British culture forever.”

If the project goes ahead, the score will be influenced by 60s skiffle, jazz, swing, and early rock.

Christopher Hampton is a prolific British playwright, screenwriter and film director who has earned high praise for his work. His plays, musicals and translations have garnered four Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, four Evening Standard Awards, and the New York Theatre Critics Circle Award. Prizes for his film and television work include an Academy Award, two BAFTAs, a Writer's Guild of America Award, the Prix Italian and a Special Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival. He was awarded the CBE by the United Kingdom and Officier des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

He won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons, and most recently, garnered an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of Ian McEwan's Atonement. The film starred James McAvoy and Keira Knightley.

Hampton is most famous for penning his Tony-nominated play Les Liaisons Dangereuses (currently in Paris, directed by John Malkovich) and for writing the screenplay Dangerous Liaisons, for the 1988 movie starring Glenn Close and Malkovich—both based on the Pierre Choderlos de Laclos novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Hampton also won two Tony Awards for his work on the musical Sunset Boulevard, including Best Book of a Musical (with Don Black), and Best Original Musical Score—sharing lyrics credit with Don Black and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Mr. Hampton’s plays include Total Eclipse, The Philanthropist and Tales from Hollywood and have been performed in the West End and on Broadway. He has translated Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage, Art, The Unexpected Man, Conversations After a Burial and Life x 3 and plays by Ibsen, Moliére and Chekhov. Hampton has also adapted for the stage Embers (Die Glut), based on the novel by Hungarian Sándor Márai, as well as Odon von Horvath’s novel Youth Withou

Hampton’s plays have been performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the Almeida, the Royal National Theatre, and both in the West End and on Broadway. His television credits include “The Ginger Tree,” “Hotel du Lac,” “The History Man” and “Able’s Will.” He has written the screenplays for Imagining Argentina, The Quiet American, The Secret Agent, Mary Reilly, Carrington, Total Eclipse, Wolf at the Door, The Good Father, The Honorary Consul, Tales from the Vienna Woods and A Doll’s House.t God.

Hampton’s screenplay for A Dangerous Method, based on his play The Talking Cure, was turned into a film by director David Cronenberg in 2011. He currently has multiple films in development.

Read the nypost.com article here