032601 Ananova

March 26, 2001
Ananova
Malkovich to star in Ripley movie

British stars Ray Winstone and Lena Headey have been signed up to join John Malkovich in the new thriller Ripley's Game.

The £30 million movie is based on Patricia Highsmith's best-selling novels.

It is being directed by award-winning Liliana Cavani in Italy.

Malkovich plays the amoral, high-living anti-hero Tom Ripley who Highsmith says detests killing unless it is absolute necessary.

The plot follows the art connoisseur and harpsichord aficionado Ripley after he is thrown into a battle of wits with Jonathan Trevanny - played by Dougray Scott.

Headey shot to fame on TV in Band of Gold. She plays his romantic companion Sara. Winstone, late of Nil By Mouth, plays the hapless fixer Reeves, Ripley's sometime companion in crime.

The adventure is based on the fourth book in the series. A source told Ananova: "The Ripley books are a unique addictive blend of extreme moral ambiguity with an uncanny atmosphere and an unrelenting sense of doom.

"If all goes well this will be the start of a series of movies on Ripley, a kind of Man of the Millennium. Hannibal has proved how popular killers can be."

Last updated: 12:30 Monday 26th March 2001