Ethan Hawke will direct a film adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ 1953 play “Camino Real,” starring Juliette Binoche.
Passage Pictures will produce. The film is expected to shoot in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, next year. John Sloss from Cinetic Media is also attached to produce alongside Passage Pictures CEO Uri Singer, Mario Peixoto (Singer’s Brazil-based partner at Passage Pictures) and Ryan Hawke from Under the Influence Productions.
Hawke, who previously starred in a stage production of “Camino Real” at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, adapted the play with writer-composer Shelby Gaines. The play is set in a quasi-nihilistic, surreal, isolated town in a tropical climate. The characters confront their existence and purpose in a narrative of love and burlesque dancing. Hawke’s “Camino Real” will have a contemporary setting.
Passage is currently in production on Michael Almereyda’s “Tesla” in New York, in which Hawke plays Nikola Tesla opposite Eve Hewson and Kyle MacLachlan. Passage is also slated to produce “The King of Oil” at Universal, based on the book “King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich,” along with “The Redeemer,” with “Crank” creator Mark Neveldine attached to direct.
Hawke recently starred in “First Reformed” and “Juliet, Naked.” Binoche won an Academy Award for supporting actress for 1996’s “The English Patient” and starred in the French romantic comedy “Let the Sunshine In,” which opened the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Hawke and Binoche are repped by CAA.