Brand to follow Dudley Moore in Arthur

While Jonathan Ross's career and popularity have taken a severe bruising over the ‘Manuelgate’ affair, his fellow lewd phone call-maker Russell Brand (pictured left) appears to be thriving. The Hollywood Reporter claims that the comedian, who resigned from his BBC Radio 2 job shortly after the scandal broke, is to star in a remake of the 1981 comedy Arthur, originally a vehicle for the British comedian Dudley Moore (right).

It would appear a smart move. Brand has made some headway in America, gaining plaudits for his role in Forgetting Sarah Marshal, in which he played a sex-crazed rock and roll singer. However, the role of Arthur, the dissolute playboy who goes in search of an heiress, was a huge hit for Moore following his breakthrough role two years earlier opposite Bo Derek in 10. Moore even received an Oscar nomination, though it was his co-star the theatre giant John Gielgud, making a rare foray into films to play Arthur’s valet, who actually won an Academy Award - for best supporting actor.

In the meantime Brand, 33, has other movies in the pipeline. He is to appear with Adam Sandler in Bedtime Stories, which opens in the US on Christmas Day, and he is playing Trinculo in director Julie Taymor's adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest.