21/02/2008

Lone Scherfig, the Danish director of Italian For Beginners, is set to start filming An Education for BBC Films in London next month. The stellar cast includes the 2008 Silver Bear Best Actress winner Sally Hawkins, Orlando Bloom, Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson and Peter Sarsgaard.

Talent behind the camera includes DoP John de Borman (Hideous Kinky), production designer Andrew McAlpine (The Piano), and costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux (The Constant Gardener [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).

Based on a book by best-selling novelist Nick Hornby (High Fidelity), this coming-of-age story is set in early 1960s London.

Jenny (Carey Mulligan) stands on the brink of becoming a woman: a brilliantly witty and attractive 17-year-old whose suburban life is about to be blown apart by the utterly unsuitable 30-something David (Sarsgaard). He introduces her to an exciting new world of chic dinners with his charismatic friend and business partner Danny (Bloom) and his girlfriend Helen (Rosemary Pike).

David charms her conservative parents, Jack (Molina) and Marjorie, and just as their long-held dream of Jenny getting into Oxford University seems within reach another kind of life tempts her.

Sherfig’s previous English language film, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself [+see also:
trailer
film profile], sold to 45 territories.

An Education is produced by Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey for Wildgaze Films, co-managed by Hornby. Co-financiers include Endgame Entertainment and BBC Films. International sales are handled by Odyssey Entertainment.