On the heels of Liz & Dick, Lifetime's campy take on the love story of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton that starred none other than Lindsay Lohan, BBC America will be delivering another made-for-TV version this fall. Because they couldn't call it Liz & Dick, this one is called ... Burton And Taylor. (Innovation!)
This one stars Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter, and the first photo was released yesterday.
Of the many problems with Liz & Dick, one of the most prominent — which we discussed on our weekly pop-culture podcast at the time — was that Lohan in particular always seemed far too much a child, not nearly worldly and knowing enough to give you the woman Taylor was when she was with Burton. Helena Bonham Carter is not only an actress with a substantially weightier resume, but one with a lot more capacity for both unhinged energy and knowing seriousness, as you see right in this picture, actually. West, too, is giving a pretty persuasively Burton-ish vibe here. It was always quite difficult to imagine the Lindsay Lohan version of this story playing as anything but a stunt, but seeing these actors in this photo is kind of intriguing.