Renée Zellweger, Dominic Sessa & Peter Dinklage Set For Sacha Gervasi’s High Concept Comedy Drama ‘Darlington’ – AFM

EXCLUSIVE: Two-time Oscar winner Renée Zellweger will play a faded TV actress who gets a shot at redemption in the real world in Sacha Gervasi directed high concept comedy drama, Darlington, which be kicking off foreign sales at AFM. A spring production next year in the UK is in the works.

The Rocket Science, Monumental Pictures, and Portobello Electric production also stars BAFTA Award nominee Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers, Tony) and longtime Gervasi collaborator Peter Dinklage (who is making village women’s dreams true on the big screen in Black Bear’s critically acclaimed sex comedy, Wicker).

Gervasi penned the screenplay which follows the Judy and Cold Mountain Oscar winner as Kate Spencer, an actress long forgotten by the industry, but is invited to reprise her most famous role — not in a revival of the show, but in the actual world where a reclusive tech billionaire (Sessa) has meticulously restored an English country estate to its former glory. Having retreated from the world, he now lives his life there in the fantasy that it is actually 1923. As Kate settles into this strange, controlled existence, she discovers that illusion and reality are far more entwined than she ever imagined.

Darlington is produced by Alison Owen (Ghosts, Back To Black, Me Before You, Saving Mr Banks) and Debra Hayward (Ghosts, Bridget Jones Baby, Les Miserables) of Monumental Pictures, and Jim Garavente (Game Night) is producing for Portobello Electric. The film is executive produced by Alexander Payne (The Holdovers, Sideways).

Zellweger recently starred in and executive produced the final chapter in the Bridget Jones’ franchise Mad About the Boy and is currently in production on the feature film A Woman in the Sun.

Following his critically acclaimed turn in Tony, Sessa is currently filming Miami Vice ’85.

Gervasi is an award-winning British writer and director whose career spans independent filmmaking, major studio features and prestige television. He co-wrote Steven Spielberg’s $219M-plus grossing The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Gervasi made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed hit, Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008). Premiering at Sundance, it won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. He subsequently directed the Academy Award-nominated Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren and Scarlett Johansson, with Mirren earning BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for her performance. Gervasi also wrote and directed the critically lauded My Dinner with Hervé, starring Dinklage, Jamie Dornan and Andy Garcia for HBO, earning a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Television Movie, alongside nominations from the Critics’ Choice Awards, Producers Guild of America, and Writers Guild of America.

Zellweger is represented by CAA. Sessa is represented by CAA and Untitled Entertainment. Gervasi is represented by CAA and Kaplan / Perrone Entertainment. Dinklage is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman etc.