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Production was stalled a couple of times, but now with a U.S distributor on board its full steam ahead for Kenneth Branagh’s contemporary take on the 1972 film. Sony Pictures Classics has boarded the production which starts later this month.
This is an updated version of the award-winning play. A dramatic and thrilling study of sexual conflict, jealousy, power and manipulation handled with both lacerating wit and humor, Sleuth tells the story of a wealthy writer of detective stories (Caine) and an aspiring yet out-of-work actor (Law) who is having an affair with the writer's wife. The writer's exquisitely modernized Georgian manor, becomes the backdrop for a cat and mouse game that pits one creative mind against another. Caine would be playing the Laurence Olivier role and Law playing Caine's original role.
What is of interest in the deal is that SPC usually picks the cream of the crop at international film festivals and have probably realized that in order to secure new material in the highly competitive market they’ve got to wear more than one hat. Getting in the game earlier can reap in more benefits.
The film will be produced by Jude Law, Kenneth Branagh, Simon Halfon, Simon Moseley, Marion Pilowski and co-produced by Ben Jackson, Law's producing partner in Riff Raff Productions. SLEUTH will be the first production for Riff Raff. Haris Zambarloukos (Roger Michell's “Enduring Love”) will serve as cinematographer with Tim Harvey, who has worked on Branagh's “Hamlet,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” and the recent “The Magic Flute” as production designer and Neil Farrell (“Hamlet,” “As You Like It”) as editor.