February 15, 2000
Fine Line Features

FINE LINE FEATURES STARTS PRODUCTION ON RIPLEY'S GAME IN ITALY

New York, NY - Fine Line Features has begun filming Ripley's Game in northern Italy. Starring John Malkovich, Dougray Scott, Ray Winstone, Lena Headey and Chiara Caselli, the film is directed by Liliana Cavani (Night Porter), and is based on the third book in Patricia Highsmith's best-selling series. Ripley's Game is an Anglo-Italian co-production produced by Ripley's Game Ltd. (London) and Cattleya s.r.l. (Rome), and Fine Line Features will release the film later this year. Producers are Ileen Maisel and Simon Bosanquet. Riccardo Tozzi is producing for Cattleya. Executive producers are Russ Smith and Marco Chimenz.

The Ripley books are a unique, addictive blend of extreme moral ambiguity, uncanny atmosphere, and an unrelenting sense of doom. Ripley's Game, the fourth in the series to be adapted for the screen, is set in present day Italy. Art connoisseur, harpsichord aficionado, master of soufflés and genius of improvisational murder, Ripley, played by John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich, The Shadow of a Vampire) finds his complacency shaken when he is scorned at a local party. While any ordinary sociopath might repay the insult with some mild act of retribution, the game Ripley has in mind is far subtler, and infinitely more sinister. John Malkovich plays the high-living, amoral Tom Ripley, said to “detest killing unless it's absolutely necessary”. The victim of his devious game is Jonathan Trevanny, played by Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible II and soon to be seen in Enigma). Their companions in the story are Sara, played by Lena Headey (The Remains of the Day) and Luisa, played by Chiara Caselli (Dario Argento's Non ho sonno, aka I Can't Sleep). Rounding out the cast is veteran British actor Ray Winstone (Nil by Mouth and Sexy Beast) who plays the hapless “fixer” Reeves, Ripley's sometime companion in crime.

The film is currently shooting in Asolo and Padua in northern Italy, will then move to Rome, and finish shooting in the streets of Berlin. Cinematographer is Alfio Contini (Night Porter); production designer is Francesco Frigeri (Malena); script is written by Charles McKeown (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen), and music is by Ennio Morricone (The Mission, Malena).

Fine Line Features currently has two films in release - Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls starring Academy Award nominee Javier Bardem and David Mamet's State and Main, starring Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Clark Gregg, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Patti LuPone, William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rebecca Pidgeon and Julia Stiles. Other 2001 releases include Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming's directorial debut The Anniversary Party, Werner Herzog's Invincible starring Tim Roth, John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Michel Gondry's Human Nature starring Patricia Arquette and Tim Robbins, and Todd Solondz's new project. Fine Line Features is a division of New Line Cinema and an AOL Time Warner company.