In more adaptation-y news from Cannes, Kevin Spacey, Colin Firth and director Hugh Hudson (Chariots Of Fire) have signed on for a big-screen adaptation of George Orwell's Homage To Catalonia.
Literary icon, satirist, animal lover: there were many strings to George Orwell's bow, but it's less well known that he was also a rifle-toting socialist who was gunned down fighting fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Needless to say, he got up again and his Chumbawamba-style recovery is recorded in Homage To Catalonia, written on his return to England in 1938. It should provide a rich backdrop for the Hudson's first film since 1990's I Dreamed Of Africa.
Catalonia will be magicked into script form by veteran screenwriter Bob Ellis, who will focus on the relationship between Orwell and Georges Kopp, the charismatic commander in the International Brigade with whom he formed a strong bond. Smart money is on Spacey to play Orwell and Firth to play Kopp respectively. Or the other way round.
Either way, they'll need their passports - principal photography is scheduled to kick off in the first half of 2010 in England and Spain, before moving to Buenos Aires and Montevideo.