From one WWI-set period flick to another, it looks as if Emily Watson is moving from “War Horse” to something set in the same era, but with far less of the treacle from Steven Spielberg’s sentimental war picture.
Watson will be joined by some fine co-stars with Anna Friel and Lena Headey in the black comedy “The Poisoners.” The pitch black comedy centers a group of women left behind in an English farming community during WWI who then become romantically intertwined with several German prisoners of war. Um, wow. Television writer Paul Billing was behind the pen on this one, and with “Entrapment” and “Creation” director Jon Amiel at the helm, we’ll hope that he treats this sort of dangerous and tantalizing material with a little more grace than he did on the latter Charles Darwin drama that explored the creation of his theory of evolution with almost no tact.
The project certainly sounds sounds intriguing, with the skilled talent in Friel and Headey in the mix, along with a stable of German actors like Ken Duken, Hanno Koffler and Alexander Scheer rounding things out. Like we said, nailing the tone will be key here, and Amiel doesn't give us the greatest confidence, but he won't be lacking in talent in front of the camera to help him pull it off.
The production is scheduled to begin filming in Ireland relatively soon, with filming also set to take place in Cologne, Germany in the late summer.