Cate Blanchett is set to direct The Dinner, an independently-produced American thriller based on a Herman Koch novel.
Oren Moverman is writing the screenplay adapted from the novel, which revolves around two brothers and their wives as they dine at a classy restaurant.
In the novel, one brother, Serge, is running for Prime Minister. His brother Paul loathes him. As the night progresses secrets spill out, including a terrible crime committed by Paul’s son.
The news was broken by Deadline.com, which said it’s not clear if Blanchett will play one of the wives. Moverman’s screenwriting credits include Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There (which starred Blanchett) and The Messenger and Rampart, which he also directed.
The producer is Cotty Chubb, who produced a Dutch-language feature based on Koch’s novel, directed by Menno Meyjes, which opens in the Netherlands in November.
Moverman tells IF his film is not a remake but a “brand new American adaptation.” He said he’s months away from finishing the screenplay.
The Hollywood Reporter’s review said the Dutch film is reminiscent of Yasmine Reza’s 2006 hit play God of Carnage, filmed by Roman Polanski as Carnage, describing it as a “prickly story of 21st-century and big-city malaise [which] scores both uneasy laughs and has a more serious (if not fully developed) dramatic undertow that’ll appeal to several demographics at home.”
Blanchett was due to make her directing debut on Reunion, an episode of Tim Winton’s The Turning, but she decided to focus on playing a character in that chapter and Simon Stone directed the piece.
Regarded as a virtually certain Oscar nominee for her performance in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, the actress will be fully involved for some time with two films. She’s starring in Blackbird, David Mamet’s thriller that was due to roll in Sydney in January but will now shoot in the US.
And she’ll play a woman who wants to escape her loveless marriage but fears losing her daughter in Todd Haynes’ Carol, a drama based on the novella The Price of Salt by The Talented Mr Ripley author Patricia Highsmith.