EALING STUDIOS ANNOUNCES ALL STAR CAST WITH JESSICA BIEL, COLIN FIRTH, KRISTIN SCOTT-THOMAS AND BEN BARNES
Monday 14th January 2008: Ealing Studios announced that filming begins today on a lavish adaptation of Noel Coward's EASY VIRTUE. International sales will be handled by Odyssey Entertainment and the project financed by Endgame Entertainment and Prescience.
EASY VIRTUE will star American actress Jessica Biel. The film also features Kris Marshall (Death At A Funeral, Love Actually), Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd) and Kimberley Nixon (Cranford).
EASY VIRTUE is directed by Australian Stephan Elliott,( The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Eye of the Beholder) and is produced by Barnaby Thompson, Joseph Abrams and James D. Stern.
Thompson says; "Having had some success with adaptations of Oscar Wilde, I was keen to try the other great British wit, Noel Coward. I wanted to make sure it felt thoroughly contemporary, which is why I asked Stephan to do it."
Elliott says: We hope to create a cinematic treat. With a great cast of Characters and beautiful costumes, sets, cinematography and music, our aim is to create a totally modern movie, breathing life into a classic genre for a new audience.
Stern added: "Coming from the theatre originally, I am delighted to be doing a Noel Coward play, particularly with the outstanding cast and director Barnaby has assembled."
John Whittaker (Ben Barnes), a young Englishman, falls madly in love and impetuously marries a glamorous American woman, Larita (Jessica Biel) in the South Of France, but when he brings her home to meet his parents (Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas), their homecoming is not quite what they hoped. His mother takes an instant dislike to the new wife. A battle of wits ensues and sparks soon fly.
The producers have gathered an award-winning team of film-makers, including costume designer Charlotte Walter (A Mighty Heart, The Bourne Supremacy); Oscar® and BAFTA winning make up and hair designer Jeremy Woodhead (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring), production designer John Beard (The History Boys, Enigma, Brazil), cinematographer Martin Kenzie, and BAFTA winning composer Marius de Vries (Moulin Rouge, Romeo and Juliet).
EASY VIRTUE is written by Elliott and Sheridan Jobbins, based on the Noel Coward play of the same name, and will film over 7 weeks on location in England.
Ealing Studios and Odyssey Entertainment in association with Endgame Entertainment present a Fragile Film in association with Joe Abrams Productions, Prescience and the BBC.
International sales are being handled by Odyssey Entertainment, with North America being handled by Ealing Studios International.
For further information:
Susie Tullett/Neil Bhatt
DDA PR Limited
Susie.tullett@ddapr.com - 0207 932 9875 (07775 657733)
Neil.Bhatt@ddapr.com - 0207 932 9800
Ealing Studios is the oldest continually operating film studio in the world and in over 105 years has produced films ranging from the first screen version of Hamlet, in 1912 through the 1940's and 1950's classics, The Ladykillers, The Lavender Hill Mob, Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets to recent productions such as The Importance Of Being Earnest, Valiant and now, St Trinian's. In 2001 Ealing Studios acquired Fragile Films, the production company responsible for films such as Spiceworld, and An Ideal Husband.
Ealing Studios International is an integral part of the Studio framework providing input and support from the earliest stages of development, through production and distribution of its films. Ealing Studios International will bring to market between three and six films annually, with a mission to work with its distributors to maximise the potential of the talent involved.
Ealing Studios:
Ealing Studios has begun construction on the second phase of its £50m redevelopment led by developers Manhattan Loft Corporation. 25,000 sq ft of prime multi-media office space is available to let on a single or multi basis for occupation in January 2008. The final phase will create approximately 100,000 sq ft of mulit-media space.
Ealing Studios was bought in 2000 by Barnaby Thompson, Uri Fruchtmann, Harry Handelsman and John Kao. Under its new management, Ealing Studios is again becoming a production studio, as it was under Michael Balcon in the 1950s. It revived its history of filmmaking with 'The Importance of Being Earnest' (starring Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Dame Judi Dench) in September 2002, the first production to be made under the Ealing banner since 1959. The redevelopment proposal, developed by Manhattan Loft Corporation, retains and upgrades the original 1930s sound stages complex as the core facility around which new support buildings, plus a new spectacular circular court with retractable fabric roof will be built in the final phase 3. In total, the studios complex will provide around 130,000 sq ft top-quality flexible space. The first three support buildings, (33,487 sq ft) are already completed and represent phase 1 of the Ealing Studios building programme.
Further Enquiries: Fiona Charlesworth, Tel: 0207 462 3538/ fiona@manhattanloft.co.uk , www.manhattanloft.co.uk
ODYSSEY ENTERTAINMENT
Launched in 2002 by Ralph Kamp and Louise Goodsill, Odyssey Entertainment is a film sales and finance business. Headquartered in London with offices in both Los Angeles and New York, Odyssey Entertainment works for the benefit of both producers and distributors and in so doing seeks to identify creative projects that will further expand it's portfolio of quality, commercial filmed entertainment rights.
Odyssey Entertainment's expertise in multi-party funding allows producers to maximize the return on their often lengthy investment whilst moving projects swiftly from development to production. This, combined with Odyssey Entertainment's position as a trusted supplier to the top independent distributors in each territory means that the company is set to build on early successes which include: Andrew Lloyd Webber's the Phantom of the Opera (grossed over $150m worldwide and honored with 3 nominations at each of the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes) Valiant, The Libertine, Renaissance and Lassie, amongst others. Forthcoming releases from Odyssey Entertainment include The Deaths of Ian Stone, August Rush and Space Chimps.
