Shooting wraps next week in London on Mike Leigh’s latest, still untitled film — his first since the multi-award-winning Hard Truths.
Leading the British filmmaker’s cast is Marion Bailey, who worked with him on Mr. Turner, Paul Jesson, star of Leigh’s All or Nothing, as well as Kate O’Flynn (Happy-Go-Lucky) and Alice Bailey Johnson (Hard Truths). Plot details for his untitled feature are yet to be released.
The seven-time Oscar nominee, known for Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999) and Vera Drake (2004), is joined behind the camera by frequent collaborators, including costume designer Jacqueline Durran, hair and make-up designer Nora Robertson, production designer Jane Brodie, composer Gary Yershon, editor Tania Reddin, director of photography Lucy Bristow, and casting director Nina Gold.
Georgina Lowe produces for Thin Man Films, and Gail Egan serves as executive producer. The film is a Thin Man Films production, co-financed by Film4 in association with Desmar, Merino Films, Ventureland and Creativity Media.
Cornerstone Films is handling international sales, with rights sold in Switzerland (Frenetic), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Greece (Spentzos), the Middle East (Italia), Turkey (Mars), Australia and New Zealand (Transmission) and Ex-Yugoslavia (MCF).
Following the success of Hard Truths, Bleecker Street will release the new film in the U.S., and StudioCanal will release it in the U.K. The project update at the start of the Berlin Film Festival could help attract further pre-sales.
Hard Truths premiered at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival and followed Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy, an angry and depressed woman who lashes out at family and strangers, and whose constant criticism slowly isolates her. It won Jean-Baptiste a British Independent Film Award and New York Film Critics Circle Award, alongside a BAFTA nomination.
