Michael Fassbender and Rachel Weisz are about to head Down Under to film The Light Between Oceans, the film adaptation of the bestselling novel by M.L. Stedman. It is being written and directed by Derek Cianfrance.
Shooting will start next month in Australia and New Zealand. Deadline notes that in addition to Oscar nominee Fassbender and Oscar winner Weisz, Alicia Vikander (Anna Karenina) will also star.
DreamWorks has been looking to make the film since December 2012, when it entered exclusive talks to get the film rights. David Heyman, the producer behind Harry Potter and Gravity, will produce the film along with Jeffrey Clifford.
Cianfrance was picked to direct in September 2013 and Fassbender joined in May and Weisz came on board last month. This will be Cianfrance first movie based on previously published material. Both Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond The Pines were original stories.
The period piece is set during World War I. Fassbender and Weisz play a couple who run a lighthouse and they find an abandoned 2-month-old infant. They decide to raise the child as their own, but find that there are surprising consequences.
“The production coming here is the result of successful collaboration between a range of agencies including Marlborough District Council, Film Otago Southland and Film New Zealand working together with the producers,” Film New Zealand chief executive Gisella Carr told Variety.
There is no set date for the film’s release, but this sounds like a perfect awards season release.
image courtesy of Roger Wong/INFphoto.com