Medusa for Oliver Twist

by Cineuropa

12/11/2003 - The new film by Roman Polanski, Oliver Twist, inspired by one of the great classics of English Literature by Charles Dickens, will be distributed in Italy by Medusa. The discussions between Giampaolo Letta, the vice president and MD of the Italian company, and Summit Entertainment, the film’s international exporter, were finalised at the MIFED market in Milan.

The film will have a budget of around $60 million and is still at the pre-production stage. Polanski is currently deciding on locations in Eastern Europe to set the reconstruction of 19th century London, and filming on Oliver Twist is due to start next summer.

The producers Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde have already confirmed their involvement in the project. It is Benmussa’s second time working with Polanski after the The Pianist [trailer], while Alain Sarde and his company Les Films Alain Sarde, is following on from his collaboration with the director after The Tenant in 1976 and Bitter Moon in 1992, without counting the collaboration with Studio Canal in the director’s last four films.