Judi Dench will reunite with Kenneth Branagh for an adaptation of Henning Mankell's novel, which the director hopes will include Anthony Hopkins in the lead role

Dench steps into Branagh's Italian Shoes

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Treading the boards … Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh in 2000. Photograph: William Conran/PA

After jostling for space on screen in My Week with Marilyn, Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh are set to reunite for an adaptation of Henning Mankell's novel Italian Shoes.

Brannagh, who played a director – Laurence Olivier – in Marilyn, will step behind the camera for his version of the Swedish author's story. He hopes to cast Anthony Hopkins as Fredrik Welin, a retired orthopaedic surgeon who retreats to an isolated island, only to be forced back into human contact when an old girlfriend (Dench) comes to visit.

The film is "tailor-made" for Dench and Hopkins, according to Branagh. "The nuance, delicacy and flavour is so based on the perfect casting," he told Daily Variety. "[This casting] takes advantage of my long relationship with the pair of them."

Branagh has given Dench her marks before. She played Mistress Quickly in his directorial debut, Henry V, and later starred in Branagh's version of Hamlet. Dench in turn directed Branagh in Look Back in Anger, an adaptation of John Osborne's celebrated play that also starred Emma Thompson. Hopkins appeared in Branagh's last film, Thor, as the Nordic god Odin, ruler of Asgard.


The Guardian

Dame Judi Dench and Sir Anthony Hopkins are in talks for lead roles in 'Italian Shoes', which director Kenneth Branagh believes is ''tailor-made'' for the pair.

Judi Dench - Judi Dench And Anthony Hopkins To Star Together

22 November 2011 09:47:02 AM

Judi Dench And Anthony Hopkins To Star Together

Dame Judi Dench and Sir Anthony Hopkins are in negotiations for lead roles in 'Italian Shoes'.

Kenneth Branagh - who has previously worked with both stars - is to direct the movie, which tells the story of a retired surgeon who resides on a remote island in Sweden before a reunion with an ex-lover forces him to confront his past, and thinks the film is "tailor-made" for the actors.

He told Variety: "The nuance, delicacy and flavour is so based on the perfect casting."

Anthony starred in Kenneth's 'Thor', while Judi appears alongside him in 'My Week with Marilyn' and forthcoming film 'J. Edgar', and the 50-year-old actor-and-director thinks their casting for 'Italian Shoes' "takes advantage of [his] long relationship with the pair of them".

Filming on 'Italian Shoes' - which is based on a novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell - will begin in late 2012 or early 2013, depending on the availability of Judi and Anthony.

Contact Music

Kenneth Branagh to helm Henning Mankell's "Italian Shoes" picture

Variety

Yellow Bird steps out with 'Italian Shoes'

Kenneth Branagh to helm Left Bank project

By Diana Lodderhose

 

LONDON -- Swedish shingle Yellow Bird, the outfit behind the original "Millennium" movie trilogy, is in development with Andy Harries' Left Bank Pictures to make a feature pic of Henning Mankell's "Italian Shoes," set to be helmed by Kenneth Branagh.

 

Yellow Bird producer Marianne Gray, whose shingle spawned the Swedish-language version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and the other two titles in the "Millennium" series, confirmed the news to Variety on Wednesday.

"Italian Shoes," based on the tome by Swedish crime scribe Mankell and adapted by Richard Cottan, follows the tale of an elderly man -- a former surgeon -- who is reunited with an old flame whom he had abandoned many years ago.

When he discovers she is dying of cancer, she asks him to fulfil a promise that he made to her nearly 40 years ago -- to take her to a pool in the middle of the northern forests where he had spent a day with his father when he was young.

Mankell, Yellow Bird and Left Bank previously worked together on the English-language adaptation of crime-thriller series "Wallander" for the BBC.

Left Bank received £32,375 ($50,197) in development funding for "Italian Shoes" in June from the British Film Institute.

The project is a good fit for Yellow Bird as the company's philosophy is largely to find content from books and series of books for film and television.

The outfit, which retains a first-look deal on Mankell's books, also hopes to make a feature pic based on his World War I-set tome "Depths."

Gray also said that Yellow Bird was in talks for a U.S version of Norwegian scribe Jo Nesbo's new TV series "Occupied."

The shingle recently made a feature version of the author's tome "Headhunters" for the big screen, which is being adapted into a U.S. version by Summit Entertainment.

Gray, who was in Blighty to deliver the keynote speech at Film London's fifth Production Finance Market, spoke to an audience in London's Tower Bridge Hilton Hotel about the shingle's activity in the marketplace, including its co-production pacts.

Gray said that increasing financial and creative opportunities in the European marketplace is resulting in a huge eagerness from U.S. industryites to want to work with Europeans.

"They are telling me international is the new DVD," she told Variety. "It's hard times everywhere with the global economy, and I think people really understand now that projects have to be successful outside of the U.S. and not just in the U.S. in order to survive and be profitable.

"I think when you work in the U.S. it's hard to understand how it works in other markets and how different it is. But I think that people are more open also to working in Europe and actually setting projects in Europe."

Film London's Production Film Market, which takes place Oct. 19-20, will see more than 60 producers present projects with almost $338 million of production value.

Of the 57 financiers attending, there are leading private equity firms, financiers, sales companies, distributors and TV execs.