THINKfilm – the medium-sized indie player whose been in the headlines as of late for not paying the bills on time, has found the funds to pick up the North American rights to Michael Winterbottom’s latest. Genova will show at the Toronto Film Festival and then compete at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in mid September.
Prior to a recent batch of politically-minded narratives (both in fiction and docu forms), Winterbottom’s body of work often switches genre branches, so even though he hasn’t touched upon the occult, this mystery set on the cobblestone streets of the flagship city is not a huge departure for the Brit filmmaker.
Written by Laurence Coriat (who had recently scripted Patagonia – a two for the price of one road movie with director Marc Evans of Snow Cake — Rickman/Weaver fame helming), this is a coming-of-age story that concerns a British man (Firth) who moves with his two American daughters to Italy as he tries to recover from his wife’s death, killed in a car accident. Shortly after their arrival the younger girl begins to see the ghost of her mother as the older daughter discovers her own sexuality. Either Hope Davis or Catherine Keener play the mom/ghost.
Coriat and Winterbottom are also working on the television project due out in several years from now called Seven Days.