27/02/2006

The news is now official: Paul Auster will be back behind the cameras to direct The Inner Life of Martin Frost in Lisbon. As announced last Friday in a press conference attended by the American writer-director, Portuguese producer Paulo Branco and French actress Irène Jacob, principal photography on the film is due to start on May 8 in the Portuguese capital.

After working with Wayne Wang in Blue in the Face and Smoke, Auster made his directorial debut with Lulu on the Bridge in 1998. The latest challenge is a peculiar adaptation of his novel The Book of Illusions, in which one of the characters directs a film called "The Inner Life of Martin Frost". It is a film within the book that Auster is taking to the big screen, in what seems to be more an extension of his literary work rather than an adaptation of it.

Auster and Branco – who have been working on this project for nearly a year – met over a decade ago, through mutual friend Wim Wenders. According to Auster, the German director, who had shot Lisbon Story in 1994, told him "he had loved his shootings in Portugal. There was a relaxed atmosphere and Paulo Branco always finds a way to make the film happen".

Produced by Lisbon-based company Clap Filmes, with a budget of €3.5m, The Inner Life of Martin Frost has a Portuguese crew and an international cast that includes Irène Jacob, Griffin Dune, Michael Imperioli and the director's daughter, Sophie Auster, who had already appeared in Lulu on the Bridge.