Barry Lyndon sights on Thackeray's 1844 "satirical picaresque about the fortune-hunting of an Irish rogue," "Barry Lyndon", the setting of which allowed Kubrick to take advantage of the copious period research he had done for the now-aborted "Napoleon". At the time, Kubrick merely announced that his next film would star Ryan O'Neal (deemed "a seemingly un-Kubricky choice of leading man") and Marisa Berenson, a former "Vogue" and "Time" magazine cover model, and be shot largely in Ireland. So heightened was the secrecy surrounding the film that "Even Berenson, when Kubrick first approached her, was told only that it was to be an
The Man Who Played God (1932 film) engagement, allowing her to follow her heart. Montgomery continues to act as a philanthropist, but his attitude is changed and his motives become altruistic. He draws closer to Mildred, who always has loved him, and the two find happiness in their developing relationship. Warners had made a silent version of "The Man Who Played God" in 1922, based on the 1914 play "The Silent Voice" by Jules Eckert Goodman, who adapted it from a story by Gouverneur Morris published in "Cosmopolitan" in 1912. For the 1932 film, a fresh adaptation was worked up by Julien Josephson and Maude T. Howell.