Cate Blanchett to play Nehru's lover Lady Mountbatten
Producers Working Title also planning a third
Bridget Jones film, starring Renee Zellweger
By Rachel Helyer Donaldson
The Australian actress Cate Blanchett is to play Edwina Mountbatten in a film adaptation of Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire by the young London historian Alex von Tunzelmann.
Her 2007 book tells the story of the scandalous love affair between the wife of Britain's last viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma, and India's first premier following independence in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru. Although the affair has never been admitted by the Mountbatten family, it is widely accepted by historians of the period and the Mountbattens were well known to have an open marriage.
Variety reports that the film's British producers Working Title have cast Blanchett as the Countess Mountbatten and that the film will be made by Joe Wright, director of Atonement and Pride and Prejudice. Filming is set to begin on location in India early next year.
Set in 1947, in the last days of Britain's colonial rule, the film is likely to focus on the affair which was first discovered by a journalist when he stumbled on the couple in a tryst at Edwina's private apartments at Viceregal Lodge in Simla. The lovers were also said to meet up for long weekends in Himalayan lodges.
According to Von Tunzelmann, the affair played its part in saving the career of Dickie Mountbatten. Nehru, who wanted self-rule, was persuaded to meet Mountbatten halfway by dropping Congress's opposition to dominion status. Mountbatten, the uncle of Prince Philip, and mentor to the young Prince Charles, was assassinated by the IRA in 1979. Edwina, His wife, who enjoyed affairs throughout her marriage, died of a heart condition in northern Borneo in 1960, aged 58.
Meanwhile Working Title is also developing a third installment of the Bridget Jones series starring Renee Zellweger, according to Variety. The third film is likely to be based on fictional columns written by Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding for the Independent in 2005 and 2006, which described Bridget, now a publishing executive in her 40s, attempting to have a baby. [rc]
First Post Newsgroup IPR Limited
July 16, 2009
UK: Cate Blanchett to play Lady Mountbatten
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LONDON, England / The First Post / People / July 16, 2009
Cate Blanchett to play Nehru's lover Lady Mountbatten
Producers Working Title also planning a third
Bridget Jones film, starring Renee Zellweger
By Rachel Helyer Donaldson
The Australian actress Cate Blanchett is to play Edwina Mountbatten in a film adaptation of Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire by the young London historian Alex von Tunzelmann.
Her 2007 book tells the story of the scandalous love affair between the wife of Britain's last viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma, and India's first premier following independence in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru. Although the affair has never been admitted by the Mountbatten family, it is widely accepted by historians of the period and the Mountbattens were well known to have an open marriage.
Variety reports that the film's British producers Working Title have cast Blanchett as the Countess Mountbatten and that the film will be made by Joe Wright, director of Atonement and Pride and Prejudice. Filming is set to begin on location in India early next year.
Set in 1947, in the last days of Britain's colonial rule, the film is likely to focus on the affair which was first discovered by a journalist when he stumbled on the couple in a tryst at Edwina's private apartments at Viceregal Lodge in Simla. The lovers were also said to meet up for long weekends in Himalayan lodges.
According to Von Tunzelmann, the affair played its part in saving the career of Dickie Mountbatten. Nehru, who wanted self-rule, was persuaded to meet Mountbatten halfway by dropping Congress's opposition to dominion status. Mountbatten, the uncle of Prince Philip, and mentor to the young Prince Charles, was assassinated by the IRA in 1979. Edwina, His wife, who enjoyed affairs throughout her marriage, died of a heart condition in northern Borneo in 1960, aged 58.
Meanwhile Working Title is also developing a third installment of the Bridget Jones series starring Renee Zellweger, according to Variety. The third film is likely to be based on fictional columns written by Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding for the Independent in 2005 and 2006, which described Bridget, now a publishing executive in her 40s, attempting to have a baby. [rc]
First Post Newsgroup IPR Limited
Cate Blanchett to play Nehru's lover Lady Mountbatten
Producers Working Title also planning a third
Bridget Jones film, starring Renee Zellweger
By Rachel Helyer Donaldson
The Australian actress Cate Blanchett is to play Edwina Mountbatten in a film adaptation of Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire by the young London historian Alex von Tunzelmann.
Her 2007 book tells the story of the scandalous love affair between the wife of Britain's last viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma, and India's first premier following independence in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru. Although the affair has never been admitted by the Mountbatten family, it is widely accepted by historians of the period and the Mountbattens were well known to have an open marriage.
Variety reports that the film's British producers Working Title have cast Blanchett as the Countess Mountbatten and that the film will be made by Joe Wright, director of Atonement and Pride and Prejudice. Filming is set to begin on location in India early next year.
Set in 1947, in the last days of Britain's colonial rule, the film is likely to focus on the affair which was first discovered by a journalist when he stumbled on the couple in a tryst at Edwina's private apartments at Viceregal Lodge in Simla. The lovers were also said to meet up for long weekends in Himalayan lodges.
According to Von Tunzelmann, the affair played its part in saving the career of Dickie Mountbatten. Nehru, who wanted self-rule, was persuaded to meet Mountbatten halfway by dropping Congress's opposition to dominion status. Mountbatten, the uncle of Prince Philip, and mentor to the young Prince Charles, was assassinated by the IRA in 1979. Edwina, His wife, who enjoyed affairs throughout her marriage, died of a heart condition in northern Borneo in 1960, aged 58.
Meanwhile Working Title is also developing a third installment of the Bridget Jones series starring Renee Zellweger, according to Variety. The third film is likely to be based on fictional columns written by Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding for the Independent in 2005 and 2006, which described Bridget, now a publishing executive in her 40s, attempting to have a baby. [rc]
First Post Newsgroup IPR Limited
