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Whale Rider director and star Niki Caro and Keisha Castle-Hughes are to reunite for the film version of New Zealand novelist Elizabeth Knox's The Vintner's Luck.
The announcement Caro would direct the movie was made today at the Cannes film festival in France, along with a list of the stars to appear, with 17-year-old Castle-Hughes among the headliners.
Also in the cast are Jeremie Renier (The Child), Gaspard Ulliel (Young Hannibal), Vera Farmiga (The Departed), and Maria Ruiz (Summer Rain).
Caro has been working on a screen adaptation of Knox's 1998 novel for several years.
Set in 19th century France, it tells the tale of winemaker Sobran and his life-long relationship with an angel.
The New Zealand Film Commission is one of the funders and today said pre-production would start at the end of the year, with principal photography starting in February 2008 in Auckland before moving in March to the Burgundy region of France then to Belgium.
Caro's debut feature was Memory & Desire in 1997, and Whale Rider debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in 2002, going on to become one of the year's biggest independent hits in the United States box office in 2003.
Castle-Hughes was nominated for a best actress Academy Award for her performance in the movie.
Caro then directed North Country where South African actress Charlize Theron and past Oscar winner Frances McDormand both gave Academy Award-nominated performances.
Castle-Hughes gave birth to a baby girl last month.
- NZPA
