Shooting is underway in Rome on Anton Corbijn’s thriller “Switzerland,” starring Helen Mirren as American crime novelist Patricia Highsmith, with Alden Ehrenreich (“Oppenheimer”) and Olivia Cooke (“House of the Dragon”) confirmed to have joined the cast.
The hotly anticipated film – which takes its cue from Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels – marks the first feature in more than nine years from the Dutch photographer-turned-director. Corbijn is known for helming music videos for U2, Coldplay and Nirvana as well as films including “Control,” the biopic about Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, as well as “A Most Wanted Man” and “The American.”
The fictional “Switzerland” story sees Mirren playing the aging queen of thrillers fading away in Switzerland, where a young literary agent named Edward (Ehrenreich), tries to coax her out of retirement to pen one last installment of her popular “Ripley” series. It soon becomes clear that the charming agent is on a more sinister mission. As they begin to collaborate on a new “Ripley” plot, the world they live in and the one they are constructing become blurred. Cooke’s role in the film is not yet known.
Popular on Variety
“Switzerland” is based on an eponymous play by Melbourne-based writer Joanna Murray-Smith, who also wrote the film’s script.
The film’s production will be moving north from Rome to Italy’s Alpine Alto Adige-South Tyrol area in mid-February and subsequently to Switzerland and London, according to several sources.
“Switzerland” is being produced by Gabrielle Tana (“Philomena”), Troy Lum and Andrew Mason for Brouhaha Entertainment; Jim Robison and Kurt Martin for Lunar Pictures; Karl Spoerri for Switzerland’s Zurich Avenue; and Andrea Occhipinti for Italy’s Lucky Red. FilmNation Entertainment is handling international sales. The Italian line producer is Enrico Ballarin (“Cyrano”).
FilmNation did not respond to a request for comment.
For his return to the director’s chair, Corbijn has assembled a team of top notch below-the-line collaborators including Oscar-nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan (“Poor Things”), Oscar-winning costume designer Gabriella Pescucci (“The Age of Innocence”) and production designer Dimitri Capuani (“Io Capitano”).