Pretty boy actor Orlando Bloom has dropped out of An Education, an English 60s period piece with a script by Nick Hornby, and is being replaced by (frog eyed) pretty boy actor Dominic Cooper. This, I believe, is what they call a non-zero sum game. Bloom apparently had to leave because of ‘scheduling conflicts’ (these are the new ‘creative differences,’ I think), but I hope it was because he just realized he isn’t really a very good actor.
I don’t know what role Bloom would have been playing and that Cooper is now essaying, but the film is about a 17 year old suburban girl in the Swinging Sixties whose life is changed by a 30something playboy. The film started shooting already, so replacing Bloom was one of those mad scramble things where availability likely trumped ability.
An Education is being directed by Dogme95 type Lone Scherfig, and it boasts a pretty terrific cast including Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Emma Thomson, Olivia Williams and Rosamund Pike.