Fiennes joins 'The Gifted’ & travels to 'Snow Country’
Wednesday, Aug 8th
Ralph Fiennes is set to topline writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes’ “The Gifted,†based on Ian Parker’s New Yorker article “The Gift,†about the life of controversial philanthropist Zell Kravinsky. He made millions in real estate and over the past six years he has given it all—nearly 45 million dollars of assets—away. He kept for himself only a modest house. But this was not enough. In 2003 he donated his kidney to a stranger who needed it. Estes is eyeing a Spring production start in New York.
Next year Fiennes is also set to make his screen directorial debut on “Snow Country,†based on the Japanese novel “Yukiguni†by Yasunari Kawabata, a Nobel Prize winner in literature. A story of wasted love set amid the desolate beauty of northern Canada, the snowiest region on earth. Adapted by Nicholas Rohl, the love story chronicles the affair between a wealthy sophisticate and a 17-year-old Inuit girl being raised in a convent, who gives herself to him without illusions or regrets, knowing that their passion cannot last. Production is slated to begin September with locations in Toronto, Winnipeg and in the Arctic.