Fiennes and Binoche set for Pasolini’s Odyssey

(FASTNEWS | ITALY) – “The English Patient” and “Wuthering Heights” co-stars Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche have signed on to reunite for “Still Life” and “Nowhere Special” director Uberto Pasolini’s new film “The Return” at HanWay Films.

The project is dubbed a gritty and original take on Homer’s The Odyssey, no gods or monsters in this. Rather it’s an elemental thriller take on the final chapters of the journey as a traumatized veteran is forced to return to violence to save his loved ones.

Fiennes plays Odysseus (Fiennes) who washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable, twenty years after leaving to fight in the Trojan war.

The King has finally returned home, but much has changed. His beloved wife Penelope (Binoche) is now a prisoner in her own home, hounded by her many ambitious suitors to choose a new husband, a new king.

Meanwhile, their son Telemachus, who has grown up fatherless, is facing death at the hands of the suitors who see him as an obstacle in their relentless pursuit of Penelope and the kingdom.

Odysseus has changed, too. Scarred by his experience of war, he is no longer the mighty warrior his people remember. But he is forced to face his past in order to rediscover the strength needed to save his family and win back the love he has lost.

The project has been written by “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” scribe John Collee. James Clayton and Pasolini will produce.