After he’s done terrorizing Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man this summer, Rhys Ifans is set to get a bit more serious. Variety reports that he’s joined the next film from Oscar-winner Susanne Bier (In a Better World), along with Toby Jones (last seen in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).
They’ll join Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, Limitless) and Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bones, The Hunger Games), who also star together in David O. Russell’s The Silver Linings Playbook this year, in Serena, an adaptation of Ron Rash‘s period novel.
Set in 1929 North Carolina the fil follows “young George (Cooper) and Serena Pemberton (Lawrence) newlyweds move to build a timber empire,” one which makes them unafraid “to kill or destroy anyone who opposes them.” However, when Serena learns of her own infertility, she “launches a deadly vendetta against her husband’s illegitimate son.”
Ifans is playing the role of “a vicious Appalachian guide” named Galloway and Jones is locked in as the Sheriff of the town, whose job is to track down Cooper’s character. Despite some lesser projects I’d argue that Jones has never been bad in a project and same goes for Ifans. Along with the leads and directorial talent at hand, I can’t wait for this one.
With a budget around $25 million, the film shoots this month in Prague’s and Czech.