Shooting has started on Richard Curtis’ new comedy The Boat That Rocked – which will star Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost and Kenneth Branagh.
Philip Seymour Hoffman - 2007 New York Film Critic's Circle Awards - Arrivals - The Spotlight - New York City, NY, USA © Wild1 / PR Photos
Variety reports the movie is being released through Working Title Films and Universal Pictures, and is described as the first “non-rom-com” by Curtis (who made his directorial debut with Love, Actually and wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bridget Jones’s Diary).
The comedy is being produced by Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner with Hilary Bevan Jones. The film also stars January Jones, Tom Sturridge, Jack Davenport, Ralph Brown and Chris O’Dowd. It is scheduled to shot from March to June with location on a trawler in the English Channel and at Shepperton Studios.
The film is set in 1966, and is described as an ensemble rock and roll comedy. It takes place aboard a pirate radio ship anchored off the English coast. Hoffman, Ifans and Frost play rival DJs, with Nighy as their boss and Branagh as the government minister who is attempting to shut them down.
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