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MUMBAI: Hilary Swank and Brenda Blethyn have been cast to
star in Mary & Martha, a new 90-minute film written by
Richard Curtis 'Four Weddings And A Funeral'and directed by
Phillip Noyce 'Salt'.
The
film will be made by Working Title Television for BBC One
and HBO Films, and shown in the UK during the run up to Red
Nose Day.
'Mary
& Martha' stars Swank as Mary and Blethyn as Martha, an
American and an English woman who have little in common apart
from the one terrible thing - they both lose sons to malaria.
Mary takes her young son, George (Lux Hanley Jardine), to
Africa, promising adventure and fun when he contracts the
disease, while Martha’s son, Ben (Sam Claflin), dies
while working as a volunteer in Mozambique. Mary returns to
America and begins a one woman campaign to raise awareness
of the disease – while Martha herself volunteers at the
orphanage where Ben worked.
Both
of them find their new lives hard and complicated but finally,
together, the two immensely different women join forces, and
go on an epic journey to try and make a difference in the
world. Curtis and Noyce will mix comedy and humanity in with
the tragedy and seriousness of the subject matter.
Curtis
said, “I’ve always wanted to write a film about
the fact that when you have children, there’s always
the possibility of extreme joy and extreme sorrow. And over
the years working with Comic Relief, I have come across the
tragedy of the startling number of lives taken by malaria
every year. This film gives me a chance to write about that
too – as well as working with a team of people I hugely
admire – Brenda Blethyn, Hilary Swank and the great Australian
director, Phillip Noyce.”
Blethyn
said, “This long overdue story of Mary & Martha is
Richard Curtis at his best. A remarkable story of the courage,
dignity and humour of two very different women in their effort
to make the world a better place. I’m thrilled to be
working with the wonderfully inspiring director Phillip Noyce,
and to be sharing the screen with the classy and totally brilliant
Hilary Swank. What more do you need to know?”
BBC
One controller Danny Cohen said, “A world class mix of
talent has been assembled for Richard Curtis’ new film
for BBC One, a story that is heartbreaking and uplifting all
at once - and one that I’m humbled to be in a position
to commission as part of the channel’s Comic Relief schedule
for 2013.”
Filming
began this week and is taking place in America and South Africa.
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