The English Patient stars Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche will reunite on screen in the upcoming film, The Return. The new original movie will be based on Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, Deadline is reporting.
Uberto Pasolini, the Academy Award-nominated director of such features as The Full Monty and Nowhere Special, will helm and produce The Return. The upcoming feature will launch sales next month at the Cannes Film Market, and HanWay Films has already signed on to handle worldwide sales of the feature.
The movie is being described as a gritty retelling of The Odyssey‘s timeless story of Odysseus’ return home from war. The Return‘s script was written by Master & Commander scribe John Collee and UK playwright Edward Bond.
In The Return, after being away for 20 years, Odysseus (Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has finally returned home but a lot of things have changed in his kingdom since he left to fight in the Trojan war.
For instance, his beloved wife Penelope (Binoche) is now a prisoner in her own home, hounded by her many ambitious suitors to choose a new husband who will serve as the kingdom’s new king. Their son Telemachus, who has grown up fatherless, is facing death at the hands of the suitors who see him as an obstacle in their relentless pursuit of Penelope and the kingdom.
The Return is being produced by James Clayton and Pasolini for Red Wave Films. The movie reunites Fiennes and Binoche 25 years after they starred together in the epic romantic war drama, The English Patient, which was written and directed by Anthony Minghella. Binoche won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and Fiennes was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award, for their roles of Almásy and Hana, in the movie.
“I feel enormously fortunate to be able to bring Homer’s world alive through the great talent of Juliette and Ralph, whose powerful screen presence is matched by the fearlessness they bring to their work,” Pasolini said about working with Binoche and Fiennes.
Clayton also spoke about The Return, stating: “[t]his is the Odyssey as we’ve never seen it before, no gods or monsters but instead an elemental thriller with a traumatized veteran forced to return to violence in order to save his loved ones; it’s an honor to help Uberto realize his vision of this journey of the soul with such extraordinary actors.”