As many of you have seen, a film about Prince Harry has been announced. It’s called The Spare, as in, “the heir and the spare”. The film will follow Harry from childhood to his military service in Afghanistan. It won’t go into production until 2010, but that hasn’t stopped people from theorizing aloud as to which actor will play the ginger prince. Both People and the Huffington Post have gotten into it, putting up online polls to see which actor would be most acceptable. At the top of most lists is Rupert Grint (or Harry Potter fame) and none other than Sparkles himself, Robert Pattinson. HuffPo actually has a much larger list, and I like some of the names they included – everyone from James McAvoy to the puffy-chested Ed Westwick to Cate Blanchett. Blanchett could do Harry justice, I think. But Pattinson has taken the early lead:

Harry Potter star Rupert Grint and Twilight actor Robert Pattinson are rumoured to be leading contenders to play Prince Harry in a new film. The movie, called The Spare, is to chart the high and low points of the Prince’s life, including the death of his mother, the Princess of Wales, and his time serving in Afghanistan.

The project is still in its infancy, with a screenplay not expected to be ready until the end of this year, meaning that casting will not begin until 2010.

However, the internet has been awash with rumours over the past week about who will play the 25-year-old, who is third in line to the throne. Several showbiz websites have tipped red-haired Grint, 21, who is best known for his role as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, as a likely candidate.

Pattinson, 23, who shot to fame playing Edward Cullen in the 2008 romantic vampire film Twilight, is also thought to be vying for the part.

The film is to be directed by Peter Kosminsky, who said he was drawn to the project because he feels “a sense of compassion” for the Prince. But he said that he would not begin considering who will play the lead role until he and producers David Aukin and Hal Vogel have read Jeremy Brock’s script.

Kosminsky told the Daily Mail: “My personal approach as a director is that I read the script, and people start to pop into my head.”

Despite the rumours about the two British actors, Kosminsky has said that he would not rule out an American playing the Prince.

He cited actress Renee Zellweger, with whom he has previously worked, as an example of an American who mastered the English accent for her role as Bridget Jones. He added: “I think it’s reasonable that we don’t want to rule out Americans, although there’s a very strong cadre of British actors, too.”

Commenting on his attraction to the Prince’s life story, Kosmisky said: “His parents break up in the most spectacularly public way, his mother dies in the most tragic and, again, public way and everything is picked over. He’s a man born to no role, the heir and the spare.”

Referring to the Prince’s tour of duty in Afghanistan last year, he added: “Suddenly, he finds himself alongside ordinary guys.

“He’s immersed, in the most acute circumstances, in the real world and absolutely finds his métier – and for the first time in his life he doesn’t feel like a spare part.”

[From the Telegraph]

I think it’s a good idea to simply choose the actor who has the general Prince Harry messy-hot-dumb vibe, rather than just concentrating on the ginger. The ginger can be faked. And I certainly don’t want to see anyone from a Harry Potter film playing The Spare – and that includes Sparkles. I adore James McAvoy, and he does a lovely English accent, but I fear he’s too small for the role. Screw it, just hire Harry to play himself. He might be good!