In an exclusive bit of news that hasn’t made the trades yet, Killer Film‘s Christine Vachon confirmed that Rupert Friend, the young actor who was the breakout thesp in Berlin Film Festival’s Stephen Fry‘s Cheri and gave a formidable perf in Jean-Marc Vallee‘s The Young Victoria will topline Lullaby for Pi. The France/Canada co-production will begin lensing shortly in the prairie provinces of Canada. The actor has just completed recording the songs that will be presented in the film.
Friend previously starred in pictures that are mostly period pics, commencing with The Libertine and Pride & Prejudice to more recent fair like The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Virgin Territory and The Last Legion.
Written by Benoît Philippon, this is about Tom (played by Friend), a bewitching blues-jazz singer. Sadly, since his wife passed away, he can no longer sing nor smile. He spends his nights in the hotel room where they first met, waiting for her phone call that will never come. He hardly sees anyone except his best friend George, the hotel desk clerk. One of these nights, a girl, running away from an insistent pursuer, rushes into Tom’s room and locks herself in his bathroom. As mysterious as her mathematical name, Pi asks Tom to sing a lullaby to comfort her. And as Tom thought he would never sing to an audience again, he starts to sing… to this girl behind his closed bathroom door.
