BBC America has acquired A Poet in New York, a film about Dylan Thomas’ final days. The drama is written by Andrew Davies, BBC’s venerable screenwriter most acclaimed for the 1995 Pride and Prejudice as well as more recent well-received series like House of Cards and Little Dorrit. It features several beloved BBC actors, with Tom Hollander (Rev., Pride and Prejudice) as Dylan Thomas and Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries) as his wife. Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting, Page Eight), and Phoebe Fox (Switch, New Tricks) co-star.
The film will premiere this fall on BBC America and is directed by Aisling Walsh (Room at the Top, Loving Miss Hatto).
From BBC America –
“One of the most renowned poets in the world, Dylan Thomas is the creator of some of the most memorable lines in the English language. Known for his wild, hard-drinking lifestyle as well as his brilliance, his popular and electrifying tours made him a much-loved celebrity in the US.
A Poet in New York opens with Thomas (Hollander) arriving in the city on his fourth visit during which he planned to rehearse, write and party. On his way to Hollywood to write an opera with the equally famous composer Igor Stravinsky, he had to earn enough money to fund his trip out west by fulfilling his commitment to a production at the prestigious Poetry Centre in Manhattan. But what might have been a triumphant new path in his career turned into a requiem for a man whose life had spiraled out of control. His life ended on a smog-ridden November day in 1953 at the young age of 39. Moving between the present in New York and the poet’s past in his hometown of Laugharne in Wales, the drama explores how Dylan Thomas’ experiences made his life virtually untenable and examines how his destructive personality played into his own demise.”