An “English Patient” reunion is finally on the horizon, as co-stars Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes are attached for a new “gritty take” on the beloved ancient Greece tale Homer‘s “The Odyssey,” according to Variety. The original epic focuses on a war-wary husband that sets sail to return home to his wife and son after the Trojan War. However, Odysseus and his crew keep running into obstacles on that mission thanks to the gods, a giant cyclops, a witch that turns men into animals, and shipwrecking sirens that use their haunting songs to kill sailors.
Italian director Ulberto Pasolini will helm “The Return” from a script penned by John Collee (“Master & Commander”) and British playwright Edward Bond (“Blow-Up“). HanWay Films is handling worldwide sales, as the pic will go out to buyers at next month’s Cannes Film Festival and certainly feels like a high-profile get for whoever lands it.
They also included an official synopsis for “The Return,” which reads as follows:
After 20 years away, Odysseus (Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has finally returned home, but much has changed in his kingdom since he left to fight in the Trojan war. His beloved wife Penelope (Binoche) is now a prisoner in her own home, hounded by her many ambitious suitors to choose a new husband, a new king. Their son Telemachus, who has grown up fatherless, is facing death at the hands of the suitors, who see him as an obstacle in their relentless pursuit of Penelope and the kingdom. Odysseus has changed, too. Scarred by his experience of war, he is no longer the mighty warrior his people remember. But he is forced to face his past in order to rediscover the strength needed to save his family and win back the love he has lost.
The two actors haven’t worked together since Anthony Minghella’s brilliant 1996 adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s novel “The English Patient.” The picture won nine Oscars back in 1997, including Best Film and Best Supporting Actress for Binoche. Fiennes was also nominated but lost to Geoffrey Rush for his performance in “Shine.”
Back in 2015, a more traditional version of “The Odyssey” was once in development at Lionsgate with director Francis Lawrence (“Red Sparrow“) and Aussie actor Hugh Jackman (“Prisoners“) attached to play Odysseus. A role that was also played by “Game of Thrones” actor Sean Bean in Wolfgang Petersen‘s “Troy,” an action-focused period epic starring Brad Pitt that was based on Homer’s other beloved Greek epic, “The Illiad.”
Fiennes was recently seen as the main lead in “The King’s Man” and the final Daniel Craig-era James Bond film, “No Time To Die.” He’s also co-starring alongside Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult in the dark Searchlight comedy “The Menu,” which will be released on December 18.