Cattaneo gives cast 'Break'

Nesbitt, Williams, Spall, Plummer tapped for jailbreak pic

By ADAM DAWTREY

LONDON -- In an attempt to replicate his success with "The Full Monty," director Peter Cattaneo has tapped a relatively low-key cast of British thesps to topline his latest comedy, "Lucky Break."

James Nesbitt ("Waking Ned Devine") plays the lead opposite Olivia Williams ("The Sixth Sense"), with Timothy Spall ("Topsy-Turvy") and Christopher Plummer ("The Insider") in prominent supporting roles.

Pic, which started shooting Sept. 4, is being financed by Film Four, with North American and Australian rights sold jointly to Paramount and Miramax.

Story concerns a group of prisoners who stage a musical, written by the warden, as the cover for a jailbreak. Nesbitt plays a bank robber, Williams a sympathetic prison officer.

"We went for the best people for the parts, and we're very pleased with the cast we've got," producer Barnaby Thompson of Fragile Films said.