It was
announced today that actor Sir. Ian McKellen is going to be playing a retired
Sherlock Holmes in director Bill Condon’s (Kinsey and Dreamgirls) A Slight
Trick of the Mind.
The
film takes place in 1947, and has Sherlock living not in 221 B Baker Street,
London, but in a sleepy Sussex village with his housekeeper and her son. The premise
is that Sherlock is haunted by an unsolved case that happened fifty years ago,
and decides to try and solve it once and for all, without the help of his good
friend Watson.
Production
is set to start in April in the UK.
ICON/AI
FILMS TO FINANCE AND CO-PRODUCE
A SLIGHT TRICK OF THE MIND, DIRECTED BY BILL
CONDON
AND
STARRING IAN MCKELLEN
Anne
Carey of Archer Gray Productions to co-produce with Iain Canning
and
Emile Sherman of See-Saw Films
FilmNation
to handle international sales
TORONTO
- Thursday 5 September 2013. AI Film,
the production arm of the Icon UK Group owned by Len Blavatnik’s Access
Industries, has announced it is financing and co-producing A SLIGHT TRICK OF THE MIND to be directed by
Oscar®winner Bill Condon and starring Ian McKellen in the lead role.
Set
to film next April in the UK, the film will be produced by Anne Carey, producer
of Anton Corbijn’s The American, through her new venture Archer Gray
Productions, Iain Canning and Emile Sherman of See-Saw Films, producers of the
Oscar®-winning British feature The King’s Speech, with Aviv Giladi, CEO of
Icon/AI Film, and Len Blavatnik exec producing.
Christine Langan, Head of BBC Films, is an exec producer on behalf of
BBC Films which is also co-financing.
Based
on a novel by Mitch Cullin, A SLIGHT TRICK OF THE MIND, the screenplay is being
adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher whose credits include The Duchess, Casanova and
Stage Beauty.
In
1947, Sherlock Holmes, long retired, lives in a sleepy Sussex village with his
housekeeper and her amateur-sleuthing son. But far from living out a peaceful
retirement, he is haunted by an unsolved case from fifty years ago. He
remembers only fragments: a confrontation with an angry husband, a secret bond
with his beautiful but unstable wife.
With
his legendary mental powers on the wane, and without his old sidekick Watson,
Holmes is faced with the toughest case of his life – a case that might finally
reveal to him the mysteries of the human heart.
A
SLIGHT TRICK OF THE MIND is the second time the director and actor have worked
together. Gods and Monsters, which
Condon wrote and directed, won the best screenplay American Academy® award for
the filmmaker and a best actor nomination for McKellen.
Writer/director
Condon, nominated by the Directors’ Guild of America for directing the
critically acclaimed Dreamgirls which received two Oscar® awards and eight
nominations, is in Toronto this week for the world premiere of his latest film
The Fifth Estate about the rise and fall of Wikileaks and its fascinating
founder Julian Assange played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Condon’s credits also include writing the
Oscar® nominated screenplay for the best picture winner Chicago, writing and
directing Kinsey for which he won the Directors’ Guild of Great Britain Award
for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, and directing The Twilight Saga:
Breaking Dawn Part 1 and 2, the final instalments in the worldwide blockbuster
franchise.
Ian
McKellen, a two-time Oscar® nominee (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring, Gods and Monsters) and one of the world’s greatest actors on stage and
screen will play Holmes. Further casting
will be announced in the coming weeks.
Anne
Carey says, “Mitch Cullin’s elegiac novel is not so much about solving a
mystery, as it is about accepting life’s mysteries. I could not be more excited about the talent
who have come together to make this film a reality.”
AI
Film CEO Aviv Giladi says, “Bill Condon and Ian McKellen are a perfect match
for this clever and intriguing project, the third on our current production
slate. The next few months will be
exciting as we move closer to shooting with our producer partners Anne Carey
and Iain Canning.”
FilmNation
Entertainment will handle international sales of the film.
A
SLIGHT TRICK OF THE MIND marks a stepping up in film production and investment
for AI Film with three production announcements this summer. In Cannes Len Blavatnik announced the Icon
production arm would be co-financing Martin Scorsese’s Silence with
Emmett/Furla Films, Corsan Films and IM Global. Silence is set to shoot in
Taiwan in July next year with Andrew Garfield and Ken Watanabe. AI Film is also co-financing and producing
the spectacular musical event film chronicling the journey of pop music legend
Elton John, Rocketman with Rocket Pictures and acquired for US distribution by
FilmDistrict in June.
Icon
/AI Film has also just seen Lee Daniels’ The Butler starring Forest Whitaker,
Oprah Winfrey and John Cusack and which it has co-financed break open at the US
box office with a huge $27 million on its first weekend and has continued to
lead the US box office with over $60 million in two weeks. Released by The Weinstein Company, the press
forecasts the film should be in the frame for awards.
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