Director Atom Egoyan will commence principal photography on his latest feature entitled, Seven Veils, next Monday at the Four Seasons Centre.
The film, Egoyan’s 17th full-length work, tells the story of Jeanine, a dedicated theatre director played by Amanda Seyfried. Tasked with remounting her famed mentor’s production of Richard Strauss’ horrifying opera thriller, Salome, after a prolonged professional hiatus, Seyfired’s character is tormented by repressed memories from her past casting ominous shadows over her present-day life.
All the principal singers in Egoyan’s current staging of his searingly dramatic Salome will appear in the film, including Toronto-based soprano sensation, Ambur Braid. “Some will play themselves,” Egoyan adds.
The award-winning filmmaker has directed Salome four times over the past 30 years for the Canadian Opera Company, the first in 1996.
“I wanted to explore what this production meant in our culture now, so I’ve written this entire feature around this production. But it also begins to imagine scenes outside this Salome dealing with all the back-up singers, the understudies, the assistants — their own personal obsessions. Their own sense of longing. Their own sense of dealing with a past that might be traumatic as well.”
“This is a project I’ve been dreaming about for years and its such a thrill to be reunited with Amanda after the amazing experience we had together making Chloe.”
Rhombus Media will produce Seven Veils partnered by Egoyan’s own Ego Film Arts with the participation of Telefilm Canada in association with Cinetic Media, IPR.VC, XYZ Films and the COC.
XYZ Films will introduce the work to worldwide buyers at this year’s upcoming European Film Market in Berlin later this month, according to an update in The Hollywood Reporter. Elevation Pictures will release Seven Veils in Canada.
Salome: Film Form and Focus review here.