Tag: A Manual for Cleaning Women

  • ‘No longer feel able to fully realise this film’: Almodovar exits English film project with Blanchett

    By AFP

    MADRID: Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has withdrawn from directing his first English-language feature “A Manual for Cleaning Women” starring Cate Blanchett with production to continue without him, his brother confirmed Wednesday.

    “Pedro Almodovar is pulling out of the ‘Manual for Cleaning Women’ project which will continue with Cate Blanchett,” tweeted Agustin Almodovar who jointly runs the brothers’ film production company, El Deseo.

    The news was first broken by entertainment website Deadline Hollywood, which said Almodovar had everything in place but “he came to the decision that he’s not ready to tackle such a monumental project in English”.

    It gave no further details but said the search for another director was “under way”.

    “It has been a very painful decision for me,” Almodovar told Deadline.

    “I have dreamt of working with Cate for such a long time. Dirty Films has been so generous with me this whole time and I was blinded by excitement, but unfortunately, I no longer feel able to fully realise this film.”

    The project is an adaptation of a book of 43 short stories by American author Lucia Berlin in which the 53-year-old Australian actress — a double Oscar winner who also holds three Golden Globes — also has a producer role through her “Dirty Films” production company.

    ALSO READ | Instagram apologizes for Almodóvar film’s poster censorship

    Almodovar’s withdrawal from the project, which was to have been his first full-length venture in English, will not affect Blanchett’s role in the production.

    The 72-year-old director, who won Oscars for “All About My Mother” (1999) and “Talk To Her” (2002), made his first English language film in 2020, a 30-minute piece called “The Human Voice” starring British actress Tilda Swinton.

    Earlier this month, Almodovar wrapped up filming of “Strange Way of Life”, his first Western and second English-language short starring Hollywood’s Ethan Hawke and Chilean actor Pedro Pascal.

    Filmed in Spain’s southern Tabernas desert on the set built for Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) which is currently up for sale, the 30-minute film focuses on the reunion of a rancher and a sheriff who had worked together 25 years earlier.

    At the weekend, Blanchett, who is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation, won best actress at Venice Film Festival for a second time for her role in “Tar”, the story of a renowned orchestral conductor accused of inappropriate liaisons with female colleagues.

    MADRID: Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has withdrawn from directing his first English-language feature “A Manual for Cleaning Women” starring Cate Blanchett with production to continue without him, his brother confirmed Wednesday.

    “Pedro Almodovar is pulling out of the ‘Manual for Cleaning Women’ project which will continue with Cate Blanchett,” tweeted Agustin Almodovar who jointly runs the brothers’ film production company, El Deseo.

    The news was first broken by entertainment website Deadline Hollywood, which said Almodovar had everything in place but “he came to the decision that he’s not ready to tackle such a monumental project in English”.

    It gave no further details but said the search for another director was “under way”.

    “It has been a very painful decision for me,” Almodovar told Deadline.

    “I have dreamt of working with Cate for such a long time. Dirty Films has been so generous with me this whole time and I was blinded by excitement, but unfortunately, I no longer feel able to fully realise this film.”

    The project is an adaptation of a book of 43 short stories by American author Lucia Berlin in which the 53-year-old Australian actress — a double Oscar winner who also holds three Golden Globes — also has a producer role through her “Dirty Films” production company.

    ALSO READ | Instagram apologizes for Almodóvar film’s poster censorship

    Almodovar’s withdrawal from the project, which was to have been his first full-length venture in English, will not affect Blanchett’s role in the production.

    The 72-year-old director, who won Oscars for “All About My Mother” (1999) and “Talk To Her” (2002), made his first English language film in 2020, a 30-minute piece called “The Human Voice” starring British actress Tilda Swinton.

    Earlier this month, Almodovar wrapped up filming of “Strange Way of Life”, his first Western and second English-language short starring Hollywood’s Ethan Hawke and Chilean actor Pedro Pascal.

    Filmed in Spain’s southern Tabernas desert on the set built for Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) which is currently up for sale, the 30-minute film focuses on the reunion of a rancher and a sheriff who had worked together 25 years earlier.

    At the weekend, Blanchett, who is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation, won best actress at Venice Film Festival for a second time for her role in “Tar”, the story of a renowned orchestral conductor accused of inappropriate liaisons with female colleagues.

  • Cate Blanchett to topline Pedro Almodovar’s maiden English film ‘A Manual for Cleaning Women’

    By PTI

    Hollywood star Cate Blanchett will be headlining critically-acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language feature film.

    Titled “A Manual For Cleaning Women”, the movie is an adaptation of Lucia Berlin’s short story collection of the same name, which includes 43 stories about women in multiple types of demanding jobs.

    According to Deadline, the project is in the early stages of development with Blanchett’s production banner Dirty Films producing for New Republic Pictures, in association with El Deseo.

    Other producers for the film include Andrew Upton and Coco Francini, as well as Brian Oliver and Bradley Fischer with Almodovar.

    The 72-year-old Spanish director, known for critically-acclaimed movies such as “Talk to Her”, “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” and “Parallel Mothers”, earlier directed the 2020 English-language short film “The Human Voice”, starring Tilda Swinton.

    Blanchett has been busy with multiple projects recently, including Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” and Guillermo del Toro-directed “Nightmare Alley”.

    She will next feature in Todd Field’s “TAR”, del Toro and Mark Gustafson’s “Pinocchio” and Eli Roth’s “Borderland”.