Ralph Fiennes has pretty much done it all. Two-time Oscar nominee for “Schindler’s List” and “The English Patient” has taken his skills into tentpole films, notably as Lord Voldemort in the “Harry Potter” franchise and less respectably as Hades in “Clash Of The Titans.” He’s done comedy (“In Bruges“), family films (“Nanny McPhee“) and worked with a staggering array of top shelf directors including Steven Spielberg, David Cronenberg, Kathryn Bigelow, Stephen Daldry, Fernando Meirelles, Neil Jordan, Anthony Minghella and Robert Redford (which reminds us, “Quiz Show” desperately needs a proper DVD/BluRay release). Hell, he’s even set to make his name as a director as his feature debut “Coriolanus” is earning strong buzz in advance of its fall release. With a couple of decades in the biz under his belt, Fiennes has tried his hand at nearly everything, but it looks like he’s ready to take another stab at a Russian classic.
Screen Daily reports that Fiennes is in talks to star in an adaptation of Ivan Turgenev’s 1872 play “A Month In The Country.” Fiennes is no stranger to Russian literature, having played Evgeny Onegin in his sister Martha Fiennes’ film “Onegin” which was based on Alexander Pushkin’s novel in 1999. This time around, he’s eyeing the part of Mikhail Aleksandrovich Rakitin, a suitor to Natalya Petrovna who is married to the older rich landowner, Arkadi Sergeyevich Islayev. The kicker here is that Fiennes may learn Russian to play the role in the film that is set to be directed by Vera Glagoleva.
The project is still in very early stages, with producer Natalia Ivanova of Horosho Production still pulling together financing. But if Fiennes signs on, it would certainly go a long way in securing funds for the movie. The adaptation will be the first done for the big screen after a handful of productions that have been done over the years for television. We’ll have to wait and see how this develops but there is plenty of Fiennes on the way. He’ll reprise Lord Voldemort for the last time in this weekend’s “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2” and “Coriolanus” hits on December 2nd. And if that’s not enough, this fall he’ll team up with another acclaimed director, Sam Mendes, for “Bond 23.”