If any old hoagie can romance a younger fox, it’s Michael Caine. The character actor is set to star in Mr. Morgan’s Last Love, which will be written/directed by Sandra Nettelbeck (Mostly Martha, which became the just fine No Reservations in the States). The film is based on Francoise Dorner‘s French novel La Douceur assassine.
Here’s the gist: “[The film will] revolve around a retired and widowed American philosophy professor in Paris whose life is changed when he meets a much younger woman, and a special relationship develops between the two.” [Variety]
What about this doesn’t sound like Bertolucci’s Last Tango In Paris? Exactly none of it. But this is more of a good thing than a bad thing. There aren’t enough films like Last Tango, as Mr. Eric D. Snider over at Film.com so deftly points out here.
All that said, Nettelbeck’s films are more romantic than they are sexual, so this may be more Last Chance Harvey (or, shutter, Venus) than Bertolucci’s masterwork. Chances are Caine will save face no matter what.
The film’s budget is set at $8.2 million, shooting in August in Paris and Cologne. Caine will jump on the project directly following his Alfred reprisal in Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, which is set to start filming in the spring.
The company that handled this film’s sale, Bavaria Film Intl., also has made a deal regarding I, Anna, a film noir starring Gabriel Byrne and Charlotte Rampling. The film is writer/director Barnaby Southcombe‘s directorial debut (Rampling is his mother). Byrne has proved himself in noirs before (Miller’s Crossing) while Rampling is one of the best actresses working now and/or ever.
What do you think of these films? Will they make it in U.S. theaters?