THE American star John Malkovich is to play Charles II in an ambitious British film about the Earl of Rochester, the debauched 17th-century poet who died a physical wreck at 33.

Speaking to The Times at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday, the actor, whose films include Dangerous Liaisons and Being John Malkovich, said that it had taken about seven years to inspire people to invest in the £10.5 million production.

“I had every difficulty imaginable,” he said. “I didn’t quite get what the objections to it were, but people don’t know how to read scripts. That’s a huge part of the problem. They can’t visualise the film. They don’t have the scope to imagine and interpret what something is about.”

The Libertine tells the true story of Rochester, who was a confidant of the King but also a whoremonger, drunkard and destructive charmer in Restoration England’s bawdy and morally corrupt society. He is also considered to be the most learned among the Restoration wits and one of the most original English satirists. Malkovich said: “He was very talented, but some of his work was locked up at the Bodleian (in Oxford) for centuries because it was so dirty.”

Rochester experienced a religious conversion when he became seriously ill in 1680, ordering that “all his profane and lewd writings” be burnt.

The screenplay has been written by the British playwright Stephen Jeffreys, who writes primarily for the Royal Court and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has adapted a drama that he wrote for the Royal Court before Malkovich took it to the American stage. It wowed the critics as a “game of wit, with its quick thrusts and sharp parrying”.

In the stage version, Malkovich played Rochester. In the film, that role is taken by the Hollywood star Johnny Depp, who made Chocolat. Malkovich said that he could not have expected film audiences to suspend disbelief: “He died at 33. I’m almost 50.”

The British actress Samantha Morton, whose films include Sweet and Lowdown, appears as a struggling actress for whom the handsome debauchee falls. The film is being made by the British company Odyssey Entertainment, and a first-time British director, Laurence Dunmore, 38, whose award-winning work in directing commercials had impressed Malkovich as a talent to watch. They worked together on a commercial for Eurostar.

Mastering the English accent to play the King will not pose a problem as the actor had already mastered it for Rochester. Critics applauded his aggressive and insinuating performance, half sexual allure and half sneering disdain.

Malkovich said: “Rochester delights in tweaking the noses of London’s royals with his merciless cynicism. His rebellious escapades and carnal liaisons inspire awe amongst men, but it is his subverse and sexually explicit wit that earns their reverence. The film is about one’s responsibilities to one’s talent. He prefers getting drunk, having a bit of sodomy, gambling his life away and vomiting.”

The script is laden with sex and period language, much of it coarse even by 21st century standards. Filming is expected to begin in December.

www.timesonline.co.uk/filmfirst
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