As you might have noticed from our brief excursion into food-blogging during our shut-down, there’s a few closet foodies here at The Playlist. As such, we kind of love it when the cinematic and culinary world cross over, even if there are relatively few classics of the subgenre; Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci’s “Big Night” stands first and foremost, with “Babette’s Feast,” “Ratatouille,” “Eat Drink Man Woman” and, if we were feeling generous, “Julie & Julia,” all being worth a watch.
This writer’s personal culinary hero is the British food writer Nigel Slater; a cook, rather than a chef (he doesn’t have his own restaurant), and author of seminal cookbooks like “Appetite” and “The Kitchen Diaries.” Now, BBC Films has announced that Slater’s memoir, the award-winning “Toast,” is to be adapted into a film, in association with Ruby Films (the upcoming “Jane Eyre”).
Slater’s book is something of a bildungsroman, following him growing up, and discovering his sexuality (Slater is openly gay), in a difficult family environment, all the while recounting the development of his tastebuds — it’s almost Proustian in its link between food and memory. Freddie Highmore (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”) will play the 15-year-old Slater, while Helena Bonham-Carter will play his step-mother.
The script’s by the great Lee Hall (“Billy Elliot”) and TV director S.J. Clarkson (“Heroes,” “Dexter”) takes the helm. The soundtrack will apparently be made up of Dusty Springfield songs, which sounds about perfect. While the film will air on the BBC in the U.K, The Works are selling it for theatrical distribution abroad, so hopefully it’ll see a big-screen release in the States. Definitely one to keep an eye on, anyway. [Screen Daily]