If it worked once in Hollywood, lord knows they’ll try it again. Eager to recapture the box office and awards season glory of their 2008 film “Slumdog Millionaire,” Fox Searchlight have started work on another India-set film titled, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”
Based on the book “These Fine Things” by Deborah Moggach, the project practically reeks of awards season bait. The story — which is basically “Cocoon” set in India sans aliens — follows the travails of a bunch of old white people who live in a retirement home in Bangalore who “find a new lease on life.” Here’s the full synopsis of the book from Amazon:
Dr Ravi Kapoor has reached the end of his tether. He is over-worked and exhausted; his South London hospital is out of funds; and reporters are hounding him about a pensioner, who for three days lay on a trolley in A and E, untended, the blood stiffening on her clothes. Even home life has become impossible, as his father-in-law, a disgusting and difficult old man, has been kicked out of his nursing home and has moved into Ravi’s spare bedroom. But then that ‘tip top man’, his cousin, Sonny, has his brainwave, his ‘great eureka’. These Foolish Things is about Dunroamin, a converted guesthouse in Bangalore, where Sonny opens a home for old people. Travel and set-up are inexpensive, staff willing and plentiful – and the British pensionsers can enjoy the hot weather and take mango juice with their gin. Skilfully inter-weaving the stories of the inhabitants of Dunroamin, their characters and their families, Deborah Moggach has created a world in which hilarity is matched with the poignancy of getting old, and comedy with the darker issues of care in the community.
The cast that is currently circling the film should paint a pretty clear picture of Fox Searchlight’s ambitions for the project. Julie Christie, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Peter O’Toole and Dev Patel are all in talks to join the picture, with awards season veteran John Madden (“Shakespeare In Love”) in negotiations to direct the film. Of course, he is also attached to direct the long-gestating “My Fair Lady,” but with production on that film now put off until 2011 at the earliest, his immediate calendar is clear.
As far as Oscar bait material goes, this is about as dry as it comes, but it features the exact kind of story and casting that Academy types love so even if it’s half good, it should have no problem being a contender to reckon with.
