After Genova, Winterbottom Leads Firth to ‘The Promised Land’

Michael Winterbottom’s Genova was a little seen family drama that played out in the cobblestone streets of the touristy, beach town. If my memory serves me right, Thinkfilm owned the title and the indie unit capsized without ever releasing it — I caught it at TIFF and thought it was an interesting mix of a teen dealing with loss and leaving her teen life behind with the worried look of her father, played by Colin Firth.

Firth will now reunite with the filmmaker on a completely different blend – The Promised Land political crime thriller set in British-ruled Palestine at the end of World War II – circa 1948 when the partition of Palestine and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel. Basically, this could be an explosive indie film. Written by Laurence Coriat (who wrote pair of Winterbottom projects in Genova and Seven Days), Firth and Matthew Macfadyen will join the already cast Jim Sturgess.

As I often mention, Winterbottom is probably the hardest working filmmaker around — easily on a one film per year pace for the past two decades.