Anthony Hopkins will join fellow Oscar winner Olivia Colman in a heartbreaking family drama.
Hopkins, as predicted in this column a year ago, will take the title role in the screen adaptation of Florian Zeller's play The Father, which, using Christopher Hampton's English version, was a smash hit at the Theatre Royal, Bath, The Kiln in London and Wyndham's in the West End.
Zeller and Hampton have written the screenplay and shifted the story from Paris to a flat in London.
In The Father, Anthony Hopkins will play a man suffering from early onset Alzheimer's who can't remember what his profession was. Olivia Colman will play his daughter
Hopkins will play a man suffering from early onset Alzheimer's who can't remember what his profession was. Was he a tap dancer? Or an engineer? Or neither? His daughter (Colman) becomes concerned when her father keeps dismissing his carers.
Producers David Parfitt and Philippe Carcassonne and executives at Film4 and Embankment reworked the schedule to ensure that Hopkins and Colman could be available to work together. Shooting begins on May 13.
The pair will do the majority of their scenes together on a sound stage at a studio complex in West London. Colman will take a short break with her children over half-term then resume work on the feature-length film.
I can also reveal that Olivia Williams, Rufus Sewell, Imogen Poots and Mark Gatiss have been cast in the picture.
Another set of producers still want Colman, who won an Academy Award for her breathtaking portrait of Queen Anne in the Film4 jewel The Favourite, to play a strong cameo role in Gypsy Boy, based on Mikey Walsh's best-selling memoir about his childhood. Meanwhile, the actress will start filming the fourth series of Netflix drama The Crown later this year, marking her last stint as Elizabeth II.
Mark Gatiss (left) and Rufus Sewell are among the stars fleshing out the cast of The Father
Imogen Poots (left) and Olivia Williams will bring their talents - and a touch of glamour - to The Father
