Ralph Fiennes will take on double duty in his new film after signing on to direct and star in a movie about Russian ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev.
The White Crow will be based on the book Rudolf Nureyev: The Life by Julie Kavanagh.
Earlier this year (17), Fiennes announced he was directing the movie and he has now joined the film as Nureyev’s teacher and mentor Pushkin. Russian dancer Oleg Ivenko will portray Nureyev and French actress Adele Exarchopoulos will play Clara Saint, the woman who helped Nureyev defect from the former Soviet Union.
Production will begin this summer in Saint Petersburg and Paris.
It won’t be Fiennes‘ first time in the director’s chair – he also took charge of Charles Dickens biopic The Invisible Woman in 2013 and directed an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus in 2011.
Fiennes also starred in both films.
Meanwhile, the actor, who played the villain Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, continues to land blockbuster roles on the big screen.
He took over from Dame Judi Dench as James Bond’s boss M in Skyfall, returned for Spectre, and is expected to reprise the role in the next 007 adventure. He also provided the voice for Batman’s butler Alfred Pennyworth in The LEGO Batman Movie, and he’ll portray a leading character in Etan Cohen’s new Holmes & Watson comedy, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as the literary sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson, which is set for release in 2018.
Fiennes will also appear in the new documentary Sea Sorrow, which examines the historical context for the current migrant crisis. The project also features fellow Brits Vanessa Redgrave and Emma Thompson.
