LONDON -- Joseph Fiennes, younger brother of Ralph, is set to star opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in Miramax Films' latest romantic blockbuster, "Shakespeare in Love."
The long-developing pic will start shooting March 2 at London's Shepperton Studios. It is being directed by John Madden ("Mrs. Brown") from a script by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman.
Set in the late 16th century, it's a highbrow romantic comedy that finds William Shakespeare writing a play that turns out to be "Romeo and Juliet," while a parallel love story develops in his own life. "Mrs. Brown's" Judi Dench is likely to take the role of Queen Elizabeth I.
Joseph Fiennes is widely tipped among U.K. industryites to follow in his brother's footsteps as a major international star, and 1998 is expected to be his breakthrough year, with three hotly awaited pics in the can set for release: Miramax's "Martha -- Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence," "St. Ives" from Miramax and Working Title's "Elizabeth."
"Shakespeare in Love," which is being produced by David Parfitt, will be overseen directly from Miramax's New York office by Meryl Poster and Julie Goldstein. It will not officially fall under Miramax's new British partnership with David Aukin, Colin Leventhal and Trea Hoving, although this joint venture is supposed to take over responsibility for all Miramax's existing U.K. production activities from February.
The budget is believed to be north of $20 million, especially after a rumored $9 million in turnaround costs from the project's previous home at Columbia TriStar are taken into account.
Col TriStar was on the verge of principal photography back in 1993 with Daniel Day-Lewis and Julia Roberts in the lead roles, but the casting fell apart and the project went into turnaround. Roberts and then-director Ed Zwick were pay-or-play. Zwick retains a producer credit.
Miramax has had Paltrow lined up for the female lead for some time, but a persistent problem in nailing down a young Brit thesp to play the Bard himself was one reason it has taken so long to get the project into production.
In fact, the delay has put pressure on Paltrow's schedule, and the start of principal photography has been brought forward from the end of March so that she can move on to her next commitment in May.
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