Kenneth Branagh starts filming his big screen version of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute in January.
Branagh’s switching from the original German to English, with a script written by Stephen Fry. The plot – which updates the story to World War One - has a young soldier waiting for the command to go to battle. He’s transported into a twilight world between dream and nightmare and sent on a deadly mission to rescue the daughter of the Queen of the Night from the dark lord Sarastro.
The film, likely to be one of the biggest ever made in England, will shoot across six soundstages in Shepperton. The cast features mostly newcomers to film, including young opera stars Joseph Kaiser, Amy Carson and Ben Davis.