7. Dominic Cooper & Jim Broadbent As Stan Laurel
Any film about the life of Stan Laurel could only ever be made one way - the bromance way. With life-long friend Oliver Hardy, the pair lit up Hollywood in a partnership that spanned thirty years. Posthumously they were voted the greatest double act of all time in a poll to find 'The Comedian's Comedian'. A Laurel and Hardy biopic could be told through the eyes of an ailing Laurel (who outlived Hardy several years) played by Jim Broadbent, as he recounts his career to the nurse that tends to him on his deathbed. He would reflect on his younger years (cue Dominic Cooper) and plying his trade alongside Charlie Chaplin, the several wives who came and went and with it the irony that the only relationship he ever sustained was with Hardy (played by Jack Black in the early years, John Goodman as he gets older). Like The Blues Brothers and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid before it, the film would focus on the relationship of its two central characters in a light-hearted way. As far as directing is concerned, somebody of Edgar Wright's ilk and comedic sensibilities would tie in well with the source material. Perhaps not as satirical and 'laugh out loud' as his Cornetto Trilogy, Wright's appreciation of both cinema and 'bromance' would lend itself to this type of picture. As for the title... well, how about 'Hardy & Laurel'?