Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #150. Operation Mincemeat – John Madden

Operation Mincemeat

Moving into his fourth decade of filmmaking, British director John Madden returns with a major pull the rug WWII drama in Operation Mincemeat. Produced by See-Saw Films and Cohen Media Group, with Charles S. Cohen, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Kris Thykier serving as producers. Colin Firth and Kelly Macdonald were announced to headline in May, with Matthew Macfadyen, Penelope Wilton, Johnny Flynn, Tom Wilkinson (who was part of Madden’s ensemble in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films), Hattie Morahan, Simon Russell Beale, Paul Ritter and Mark Gatiss have also joined the cast. Sebastian Blenkov, who lensed Madden’s last feature (Miss Sloane, 2016) serves as cinematographer. Madden is well-renowned for 1998’s Shakespeare in Love, which competed in Berlin and won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Madden also competed in Venice in 2005 with Proof.

Gist: In 1943, two British intelligence officers concoct Operation Mincemeat, wherein their plan to drop a corpse with false papers off the coast of Spain would fool Nazi spies into believing the Allied forces were planning to attack by way of Greece rather than Sicily. Michelle Ashford (Masters of Sex) adapts from the novel by Ben Macintyre.

Release Date/Prediction: Production is slated for the end of December, 2019, we assume Madden’s high profile project will likely premiere at TIFF in the fall of 2020. His last feature Miss Sloane was a world premiere selection for the AFI Fest.