Rami Malek Playing One Of The Greatest Actors And Filmmakers Of All Time
Rami Malek is set to play the legendary Buster Keaton in a miniseries directed by Matt Reeves.
Rami Malek has already played one of the greatest musicians and entertainers of all time when he brought the complicated legacy of Freddie Mercury to life in Bohemian Rhapsody. Now the star is set to do it all over again with another icon, one of the first stars of Hollywood, Buster Keaton. Deadline reports that Malek has signed on to an upcoming miniseries about the silent film star with an all-star team behind the camera.
The Batman director Matt Reeves is set to produce and direct the biopic, with a screenplay from Ted Cohen, an Emmy winning writer responsible for some of the best episodes of Friends and Veep. The series will be based off of the book Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life by James Curtis. The project is Rami Malek’s return to television following his breakout role as Elliot in USA’s Mr. Robot.
Buster Keaton is an interesting figure to make the subject of a miniseries given his prominence in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Originally a vaudeville performer, Keaton became involved in film after a chance meeting with fatty Arbuckle when he came home from serving in World War 1. Exhibiting the same tendencies and quirks of Rami Malek’s other breakthrough performances, Keaton took home a camera his first day on set, taking it apart and reassembling it over and over until he knew exactly how it worked.
That desire for perfection served Buster Keaton well when he went behind the camera as a director, responsible for some of the biggest films of the roaring 20’s, including The Navigator, Sherlock Jr., and The General. It’s that last film which would make for an amazing segment of the Rami Malek miniseries given its place in film history. A comedic film about the Civil War, audiences turned on the filmmaker as they expected a light-hearted romp, and got a film which had some genuine laughs, but also included a reenactment of battles that took place in the conflict.
The General held a record for the single most expensive scene in Hollywood history for nearly 40 years, losing out to Ben-Hur’s chariot race. A climatic train shot of the locomotive plunging through a burning bridge was done decades before computers were invented, nevermind CGI. A dramatization of the spectacular production is perfect for a Rami Malek acting showcase.
Since starring in Bohemian Rhapsody, Rami Malek made a dramatic turn as Lyutsifer Satin in No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s last film as James Bond. The award-winning actor also lent his voice to the Robert Downey Jr. version of Dolittle, and co-starred in one of the biggest flops of 2022, Amsterdam. Before the upcoming Buster Keaton series starts production, Malek can be seen in the this summer’s epic, Oppenheimer.
Rami Malek may have found a successful career in biopics, especially those done by directors that have made Batman films, but his Buster Keaton miniseries has the potential to win even more awards. Hollywood loves stories about itself, and while Babylon, set in the time period in which Keaton was a major star, is a disappointment, the Golden Age of Hollywood is ripe for countless films and shows. The amazing life of one of the biggest stars in history , with one of the best actors currently working in front of the camera and an all-star team behind the scenes, is primed to be a hit when it’s finally released.
