Variety is reporting that New Line International and Picturehouse Films will jointly distribute the François Girard helmed feature Silk, with New Line and HBO Films picking up the rights for most of the world.
The film stars Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, Koji Yakusho and Alfred Molina and is based on the Alessandro Baricco novella “Silk”, a story of adventure, sexual enthrallment, and a love so powerful that it unhinges a man’s life. In 1861 French silkworm merchant Hervé Joncour is compelled to travel to Japan, where, in the court of an enigmatic nobleman, he meets a woman. They do not touch; they do not even speak. And he cannot read the note she sends him until he has returned to his country. But in the moment he does, Joncour is possessed. The same spell will envelop anyone who reads Silk, a work that has the compression of a fable, the evocative detail of the greatest historical fiction, and the devastating erotic force of a dream.
The film is scheduled to begin shooting next month in Japan and will travel to Italy, Egypt and Asia before wrapping in late May.
