Beloved British motorcycling ace to be revived in ‘Sheene’ – Cumberbatch to narrate docu ‘Naples ’44’
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LOS ANGELES, Feb 13, (RTRS): Celebrated British screenwriting duo Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement will write the script of “Sheene,” a feature film biopic about charismatic motorcycling ace Barry Sheene. The film, a UK-Australian co-production is based on the book “Barry: The Story of Motorcycling Legend Barry Sheene” by Sheene’s team-mate Steve Parrish and MotoGP commentator Nick Harris.a
Sheene was a cockney playboy who twice won the world motor cycling championships and survived a couple of near-fatal bike crashes, before dying of cancer at age 52.
La Frenais and Dick Clement previously scripted “The Commitments,” “The Bank Job,” “Flushed Away” and TV series “Auf Wiedersehen Pet” and “Lovejoy.”
Production is by by Will Stoppard of the UK’s Deep Springs Pictures, and Rod Morris of Australia’s I. O. Films. The pair is currently handling rights ahead of the appointment of an international sales agent.
Inspiring
“To have a British sporting icon who cheated death, did whatever it took to win, lived life to the full, and conquered the most dangerous sport in the world was inspiring. Sheene was a superstar that transcended his sport, someone we all looked up to and lived our dreams through,” said Stoppard. “(La Frenais and Dick Clement) will deliver material that portrays the uncompromising larger than life character, coupled with the humor and drama that was never far away from Barry. At the same time they have their finger on the pulse of 1970s enabling them to make the most and capture this fascinating era as the backdrop to the movie.”
Benedict Cumberbatch has been recruited as voice talent to narrate high-profile docu “Naples ’44” by Italian director Francesco Patierno, based on the eponymous diary by British travel writer Norman Lewis about his experience as a British intelligence officer in the southern Italian port city following its liberation from Nazi forces.
Cumberbatch is voicing Lewis who wrote the memoir while he was a sergeant in the Field Security Service of the British Army Intelligence Corps in southern Italy from September 1943 to October 1944. In his widely sold book he recorded the desperate lives of Neapolitan civilians who survived by relying on all types of subterfuges, and also prostitution, thievery, and beliefs in miracles and cures.
Patierno, who is known for gritty drama “Pater Familias” and docu “The War of the Volcanoes” about how Roberto Rossellini left Anna Magnani for Ingrid Bergman, is directing “Naples” using both archive and feature film footage, accompanied by Cumberbatch’s narration.
Tony Shalhoub, Clemence Poesy and Sylvie Testud have joined Armie Hammer and Geoffrey Rush on Stanley Tucci’s “Final Portrait.”
Production begins Monday in the UK on the film, which focuses on the end of Swiss painter-sculptor Alberto Giacometti’s life. Tucci is directing from his own script, based on James Lord’s book “A Giacometti Portrait” in which Lord — a young American writer — studied Giacometti as he painted Lord’s picture in 1964.
Rush stars as Giacometti, who died in 1966 in Switzerland and is best remembered for his stark and surrealistic sculptures, while Hammer stars as Lord. Shalhoub plays Giacometti’s brother while Testud will play his long-suffering wife and Poesy, who appeared in the later “Harry Potter” movies, portrays his muse and lover.
Producers are Gail Egan for Potboiler alongside Nik Bower for Riverstone Pictures and Ilann Girard. Deepak Nayar is an executive producer and the film is produced in association with Olive Productions, Lowsun Productions and Arsam International.
Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Andrew Ahn’s feature debut “Spa Night” which world premiered at Sundance.
A critically-acclaimed pic, “Spa Night” earned its star Joe Seo a special jury prize for breakthrough performance in Park City.
Set in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, “Spa Night” explores a Korean-American family’s dreams and realities as each struggles with the overlap of personal desire, disillusionment and sense of tradition. It centers on a closeted Korean-American teenager who takes a job at a Korean spa where he discovers an underground world of gay sex.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Strand Releasing. They have championed daring independent films by world class directors for over two decades. We are honored to be a part of this legacy,” said Ahn.
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