Veteran Irish actor Peter O’Toole (Venus, Goodbye Mr. Chips) and Geraldine Chaplin (Doctor Zhivago, Chaplin) will headline ‘Jennifer and the Swan Boat’, a new feature film from Palancar Company Ltd which will explore the unlikely friendship between a former ballet star and a gifted albeit mute orphan.
O’Toole will play a former ballet star who strikes up a friendship with an orphan before tutoring her to stardom. The film will be principally set in Paris’ Opera House where Geraldine Chaplin’s Marianne manages the ballet company. Casting is still underway to find the actress who will play the part of the young ballet dancing orphan.
The film is set to shoot in March 2011 for eight weeks in Paris’ Opera House, the city itself and the bordering areas. Three-time Academy Award winner Michel LeGrand (The Thomas Crown Affair) will score the film and Claude Bessy, former prima ballerina of the Paris Opera Ballet, will play herself and choreograph the dance sequences. The other cast members involved include Larrio Ekson (Aurore), Brigitte Maoti (Tony Zoreil), Daniel Downing and Jeanne Manson.
Michael Beyer (All in One Hand: The Pianist Paul Wittgenstein) will direct the film which is written by David Amory Lown (The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep) who also produces alongside Patricia Twohill Lown who tells IFTN that the funding for the film has come from Région Ile-de-France and private sources. The film’s director of photography and the film’s release date are TBC.
With regards Peter O’Toole’s role in the film producer Twohill Lown is full of praise for the Irish actor, telling us “when Peter read the script, he immediately fell in love with it. As you can imagine, Peter O'Toole does not need to audition - David did not have him in mind when he wrote it, but he is a perfect fit.”
Both David Amory Lown and Patricia Twohill Lown will be in attendance at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival to discuss ‘Jennifer and the Swan Boat’.
