HOLLYWOOD - Queen of pop Madonna and husband/director Guy Ritchie are hard at work on their first feature film together entitled, aptly enough, Love, Sex, Drugs & Money. Columbia Pictures has reportedly picked up the project and is eyeing a fall 2002 release date.LSD&M is a remake of Lina Wertmüller's 1975 steamy Italian film Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzuro mare d'Agosto, which translates to Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August. How they got from there to Love, Sex, Drugs and Money is up for debate.
The bourgeoisie and the rebel
In the film Madonna stars as Amber, a spoiled, rich woman who goes on a yachting holiday with friends in the Mediterranean where she meets a communist sailor who thoroughly dislikes her. When they end up stranded on a remote and deserted island, the sudden shift in power in their relationship acts as an aphrodisiac, and the two become entangled in a passionate romance.
Adriano Giannini will play Madonna's love interest, the brutish sailor Giuseppe Esposito. Other cast members include Bruce Greenwood, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Elizabeth Banks and David Thornton.
Rumors are circulating that Friends star Jennifer Aniston will also appear in the film, but it is not known what exactly her role will be.
The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks
It comes as no surprise that Ritchie, who wrote and directed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, would create a project with Madonna in mind. But the British director was singing a different tune when he spoke to Hollywood.com in January. When asked if his next film project would be a Madonna flick, he flatly denied it.
"No it's not, actually. I only found out about that film yesterday through journalists. It's a film called "The Mole," I believe--which I've never heard of. I'm sure we'll make a film together at some stage. But my next film will probably be about the Ottoman Empire and Christendom."
Sounds like the Turks will have to wait their turn.
La Isla Bonita
Since LSD&M is set on a Mediterranean island, most of the film was shot on the sandy shores of Malta and Sardinia. Madonna and Ritchie headed to Malta to begin shooting for in September. According to Malta's The Times, Madonna and her two children arrived on a private jet with a large entourage and avoided ordinary airport channels.