Liev Schreiber will star in a movie adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novel “Across the River and Into the Trees.”
Tribune Pictures and The Exchange announced the project Monday and said production is planned to start in Venice, Italy, and the Veneto region under COVID-19 guidelines next month. “Across the River and Into the Trees” has the support of the Italian tax credit and will be introduced to buyers through The Exchange at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Virtual market, which opens Sept. 10.
Schreiber will portray Colonel Richard Cantwell, a character partially based on Hemingway’s friend Colonel Charles T. Lanham. In the novel, published in 1950, Cantwell is duck hunting in Northern Italy during the closing days of World War II and dealing with a star-crossed romance with a much younger woman, having been damaged both physically and mentally during World War I and trying to come to terms with his own mortality.
Paula Ortiz is directing from Peter Flannery’s script. The cast includes Italian actor Matilda De Angelis, who was selected as a “Shooting Star” during the 2018 Berlin Film Festival, Italian actor Laura Morante, Spanish actor Javier Cámara and Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini, who was nominated for an Academy Award for “Seven Beauties.”
Robert MacLean of Tribune Pictures is producing with John Smallcombe and Ken Gord. William J. Immerman is executive producing.
Brian O’Shea of The Exchange said MacLean had gathered a “very impressive award-winning team for ‘Across the River and Into the Trees,’ one of the few projects the international audience will be able to look forward to next year.”
Schreiber is best known as the lead in the Showtime series “Ray Donovan.” He won a Tony for the 2005 production of “Glengarry Glen Ross.” He’s represented by Untitled Entertainment and UTA.
De Angelis is repped by Volver Consulenze Artistiche; Morante by Moira Mazzatini TNA Rome; Cámara by Paloma Juanes, Yoann de Birague & Associes and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher; and Giannini by Studio Squillante. Director Paula Ortiz is represented by Ruth Franco Talent in Madrid. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.