"The Big Lebowski" actress Julianne Moore is set to star alongside "Inception" actor Ken Watanabe and "The Hateful Eight" star Demian Bichir in the hostage drama "Bel Canto." "Mozart in the Jungle" Paul Weitz is the director.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Moore will play as a famous American soprano Roxane Coss in "Bel Canto." Watanabe plays the rich Japanese industrialist Katsumi Hosokawa. Bichir will act as General Benjamin. The long-in-the-works movie is an adaptation of Ann Patchett's international best-selling 2001 novel of the same name.
"Bel Canto" is based on actual hostage events in Peru in the mid-1990s, as Deadline reported. It centers about Coss who travels to a military dictatorship in South America. She gives a private concert at the birthday party of Hosokawa. Just as the gathering started, the house is taken over by guerrillas. General Benjamin led those guerillas and demands the release of their imprisoned comrades. A monthlong standoff follows in which hostages and captors must overcome their differences and find their shared humanity in the face of impending disaster.
Weitz also adapted the screenplay of "Bel Canto" with Anthony Weintraub. Bloom movie studio began introducing the project to foreign buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival. WME Global is selling the U.S. rights.
A-Line Pictures' Caroline Baron and Weintraub are the producers of "Bel Canto." Weitz and Andrew Miano are also the producers via their production company Depth of Field. Weitz and Baron are teamed together on the Golden Globe award-winning Amazon series "Mozart in The Jungle."
Oscar winner Moore is repped by CAA, United Agents, and Management 360. She will next appear in Todd Haynes' "Wonderstruck" and the Kingsman sequel "Kingsman: The Golden Circle." She also stars in the upcoming George Clooney-helmed "Suburbicon."
Watanabe is represented by WME, Roar, and K Das. He can next be seen in "Transformers: The Last Knight," starring Mark Wahlberg. He made an appearance in Tom Cruise-helmed "The Last Samurai" and got a supporting actor Oscar nominee. Bichir has just wrapped Ridley Scott's "Aliens: Covenant" and is with CAA. He earned a best actor Oscar nomination for "A Better Life."
Watch the video of Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe casting in "Bel Canto":
