The political thriller Backstabbing for Beginners has landed Ben Kingsley and Josh Hutcherson for its two lead roles. Directed and co-written by Danish filmmaker Per Fly (no, really, that's his name), the film is based on the best-selling memoir by Michael Soussan, an expert on international relations. The story centers on Michael (Hutcherson), a young idealist who lands his dream job as a program coordinator for the UN’s Oil for Food program. He is thrown into an already fraught post-war Iraq where government agents and power-hungry countries are circling the country’s oil reserves like sharks. He seeks answers from the one person he thinks he can trust, Pasha (Kingsley), his boss, a seasoned diplomat. The more Michael learns, however, the more he suspects a conspiracy at the highest level. The only way out will be to expose it all — risking his own life, his mentor’s career, and the life of the Kurdish woman he loves.
Following on the news that Mia Goth had joined Robert Pattinson in Claire Denis' High Life, the cast has now added Oscar winner Patricia Arquette. Penned by Denis, author Zadie Smith, and Nick Laird, the story centers on a group of skilled criminals who agree to be part of a government-sponsored mission to find alternate energy sources while also part of a human reproduction experiment in space. Things go terribly wrong when their ship is hit with cosmic rays. Filming is set to begin early next year. [Screen Daily]
