Fox Searchlight, the studio that brought us the wonderful Slumdog Millionaire, is hoping to return to India once again for the upcoming film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. /Film tell us that the studio is hoping director John Madden will sign on to direct the film.
The film’s based on the novel These Foolish Things, by Deborah Moggach.
Here’s the novel’s synopsis (via Amazon):
When Ravi Kapoor, an over-worked London doctor, is driven beyond endurance by his disgusting and difficult father-in-law, he asks his wife: ‘Can’t we just send him away somewhere? Somewhere far, far away.’ His prayer seems to have been answered when his entrepreneurial cousin, Sonny, sets up a retirement home, recreating a lost corner of England in a converted guesthouse in Bangalore. Travel and set-up are inexpensive, staff willing and plentiful – and the British pensioners can enjoy the hot weather and take mango juice with their gin.
It sounds a bit like The Painted Veil, which John Curran adapted a few years back from the Maugham novel of the same name, with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts at the helm.
There are some big actors in talks to star, including Judi Dench, Pete O’Toole, Tom Wilkinson and Julie Christie. If the film comes together correctly and ends up having the all star cast that’s currently in talks, Fox Searchlight will have another potential Oscar winner on their hands.
Have you read These Foolish Things? What did you think?