Fiennes quits the movies

In a bold move that will take him away from cinema for an extended period, Ralph Fiennes has been working overtime to free up next year solely for theatre work – reports the Daily Mail. Over the last few months Fiennes has shot three films back-to-back – Eugene Onegin, Sunshine and The End of the Affair, to allow him the luxury of spending a year treading the boards. As part of a project estimated to cost millions, Fiennes will star in two Shakespeare productions Coriolanus and Richard III at the semi-derilect Gainsborough Studios in North London. The studios are best known for their association with Hitchcock – the director filmed many of his early movies there. To fit in a temporary auditorium with 700 seats will mean the studio interior will have to be gutted, but the famous iron gates will remain. It’s the latest in a line of successful collaborations between Fiennes and Almeida theatre director Jonathan Kent – the Oscar-winning actor also starred in the Islington-based theatre’s productions of Hamlet and Ivanov.