Aussie star eyes archaeology drama…
Oscar-winning ‘Blue Jasmine’ star Cate Blanchett has entered into talks to star in Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier’s period drama ‘The Dig,’ according to Screen Daily.
Adapted from John Preston’s novel of the same name, the drama explores the story and characters behind the 1938/9 excavation of the famous Anglo-Saxon burial mounds at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, “whose sixth and seventh century riches included a 27-metre ship and which is the likely burial site of King Raedwald of East Anglia.”
Blanchett would play Edith May Pretty, an amateur archaeologist who was one of the driving forces behind the excavation. The screenplay was adapted by Moira Buffini (‘Byzantium,’ ‘Tamara Drewe’).
Murray Ferguson of Clerkenwell Films, Ellie Wood, and Gaby Tana (‘Philomena’) are producing, with BBC Films backing the film.