Helen Hunt, Dustin Hoffman Join Peter Greenaway’s New Film

Oscar-winners Helen Hunt and Dustin Hoffman have signed on to star in the new, still-untitled feature from British director Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover).

Principal photography for the film has begun in Lucca, Italy.

Sofia Boutella (Kingsman), Giacomo Gianniotti (Grey’s Anatomy), Jonno Davies (Kingsman: The Secret Service) and Laura Morante (The Son’s Room) co-star in the drama, the first feature from Greenaway since 2015’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato.

Based on Greenaway’s original script, the film is the story of an intelligent man whose final big adventure is intended to be his own death, which he wants to organize in an elegant, sensible and tidy manner, with as few loose ends as possible.

“The theme of this film is highly relevant and topical in these times, where the end-of-life topic is headline news on a daily basis,” said Greenaway. “As such, I am very excited to be working with such an array of extraordinary actors and crew and personal collaborators to bring this particular story to the big screen. With ironic provocation the film is prepared to seriously ask if death is necessary, and if it is, should we not be available to decide where and when? And even how? If we truly are going to die, shouldn’t we be involved in the decision-making?”

Markus Barmettler and Philip Lee are producing for Facing East. The project has been set up with Jumpy Cow Pictures and Italian services company The Family. Postproduction will be in done in the Netherlands with Dutch producer Witfilm and in Belgium with Saga Film.

Enrique Drescher, Daniel Fluri, Andres Kernen, Adrian Grabe, Saskia Boddeke, Ada Bonvini, Ivano Fucci and Marc Jacobson are executive producers on the project.

The 82-year-old Greenaway is a pioneering figure of British and international art house cinema. Alongside 1989’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover starring Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon, his best-known works include Drowning by Numbers (1988), The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982) and Prospero’s Books (1991). In 2014 he was honored with a BAFTA lifetime achievement award for outstanding British contribution to cinema.

Hoffman is represented by Tavistock Wood Management and WME; Hunt by United Talent Agency; Boutella by Agence Adequat and CAA; Gianniotti by Do MGMT, The Gersh Agency, Thruline Entertainment, Characters Talent Agency and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Feldman, Royal, Shikora & Clark; Davies by Denton Brierley, ColorCreative, Gersh and GGSSC; Morante by Alsira Garcia-Maroto Talent Agency and UBBA. Barmettler and Lee are represented by Marc Jacobson Law.