Back in March it was announced Joe Wright’s follow-up to The Soloist would be Indian Summer based on the book of the same name by Alex von Tunzelmann. After taking to Los Angeles for The Soloist, Wright said he “was looking for something that was primarily about the British experience” for his next film and Indian Summer filled the bill focusing on the last days of Britain’s colonial rule in India and the symbolic end of Britain’s status as a world superpower and now Wright has found his female lead for the feature.
Variety reports Cate Blanchett will star as Lady Edwina Mountbatten in a story that follows the fateful events as Britain’s Lord Mountbatten, with Edwina in tow, is sent to oversee the handover of power in the summer of 1947 to Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister. William Nicholson (Gladiator and Elizabeth: The Golden Age) is penning the script.
Universal is set to handle distribution as filming begins next year, which may make it a 2011 release unless Wright can get it ready for an award season run in late 2010.
Blanchett was last seen in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and will be seen (and heard) in a trio of upcoming films including the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on August 14 as well as Wes Anderson’s animated The Fantastic Mr. Fox in November. She is also starring as Lady Marion in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood due out on May 14, 2010, which just recently added Danny Huston to the cast as King Richard.
