Skyfall & 1917 Director Sam Mendes' New Movie Starts Filming
Sam Mendes, the Academy Award-winning British director of such films as 1917 and Skyfall, has a new film in production for Searchlight Pictures. Besides being regarded as one of the most celebrated filmmakers of modern cinema, Mendes is noted director of theatre, a writer, and a producer. He's helmed everything from blockbuster action films like Skyfall and its followup Spectre, to intimate, adult dramas like Road to Perdition and American Beauty, which netted him his Best Directing Oscar.
In an official press release from Searchlight Pictures, Mendes' new film, titled Empire of Light, has started filming. The movie is centered around a love story set primarily in an old beautiful movie theater on the Southern coast of England in the 1980s. Mendes describes the film as a "personal project," which perhaps explains while this will be his first time as a film's sole credited screenwriter, following his only other co-writing credit for 1917. Empire of Light has begun central photography in England along the coast of Kent.
Related: Why Sam Mendes' Jarhead Is More Realistic Than His 1917
It's unclear at this time if the film will be strictly auto-biographical, in the same vein as Kenneth Branagh's recent Belfast, or if it will only be loosely based on Mendes' life. Set to star in the film is recent second-time Best Actress nominee and potential future addition to the MCU, Olivia Colman. Co-starring with Colman are Academy Award-winner Colin Firth (The King's Speech), Micheal Ward (Smallaxe: Lovers Rock), Tom Brooke (The Crown), Tanya Moodie (A Discovery of Witches), and Toby Jones (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). Searchlight is eyeing late 2022 for Empire of Light's release date.
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