EXCLUSIVE: Britain’s Lesley Manville and up-and-coming European actress Vicky Krieps, who hails from Luxembourg, have joined Daniel Day-Lewis to star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled new film, which has now begun shooting in the UK.
Focus Features holds worldwide rights to the film and will release the pic in the U.S. later this year, with Universal handling international distribution.
The story, which reunites Anderson with There Will Be Blood star Day-Lewis, is set in the couture world of 1950s London and illuminates the life behind the curtain of an uncompromising dressmaker commissioned by royalty in high society.
The film’s producers are JoAnne Sellar, Megan Ellison through her Annapurna Pictures, and Anderson. Peter Heslop, Adam Somner and Daniel Lupi exec produce. Chelsea Barnard and Jillian Longnecker are overseeing production for Annapurna.
The well-respected Manville is a staple in English film, theater and television and frequently collaborates with director Mike Leigh. She’s had roles in The Theory Of Everything, Maleficent and Another Year, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA.
It’ll certainly be a career-defining role for the young Krieps, who’s starred in a number of local European – predominately German – films but has also featured in U.S. fare including Hanna and A Most Wanted Man. She recently wrapped German thriller Gutland in which she starred alongside Frederick Lau (The Wave).
Manville is repped by ARG in the UK. Krieps is repped by Tavistock Wood in the UK and Players Agentur Management in Germany.
Any intel on who the cinematographer will be?
PTA himself.