Variety says that Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella will star in ancient Egyptian epic Agora,the next film by Alejandro Amenabar and the first production from Fernando Bovaira’s new Madrid-based Mod Productions.
Amenabar and regular co-writing partner Mateo Gil wrote the screenplay. Telecinco Cinema is producing with Amenabar’s Himenoptero shingle. Spain’s Sogecable will co-finance the pic, which will begin principal photography next Monday in Malta.
Agora, Amenabar’s second English-language film after Nicole Kidman starrer The Others, is set in Roman Egypt in the fourth century A.D. Weisz plays astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, who fights to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world. Her slave Davus (Minghella) is torn between his love for his mistress and the possibility of gaining his freedom by joining the rising tide of Christianity.
Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom, Michael Lonsdale, Rupert Evans and Homayoun Ershadi round out the cast.
