Orlando Drops Out Of 'An Education'

From The Daily Mail...

Orlando Bloom is doing full on martial arts training for a Hong Kong kung-fu movie.

It means Bloom has had to drop out of the small role he was going to take in An Education, which has just started production, with Carey Mulligan playing a teenager in Sixties London who comes under the spell of a charismatic - and totally unsuitable - older man played by Peter Sarsgaard, who introduces the girl to a high-living lifestyle.

Bloom was to have played a friend of Sarsgaard's character. Instead, the fastrising Dominic Cooper will play Bloom's role.

Mr Cooper will be seen this year in the screen version of the hit musical Mamma Mia! (still in the West End), and opposite Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes and Hayley Atwell in The Duchess.

Meanwhile, Bloom is limbering up and getting fit to be in Johnny To's movie The Red Circle, which will film in Hong Kong.

By the way, An Education is based on a memoir Lynn Barber wrote for Granta - it was adapted for the movies by Nick Hornby.

Cafe Dismantled To Recapture Swinging Sixties

An interesting little article from The Daily Express

THE historic Café de Paris is to be completely dismantled and rebuilt for a big-budget British movie, An Education – and the whole process will be captured on film by actor Orlando Bloom.

Club regular Orlando stars in the flick, the story of a 17-year-old suburbanite caught up in the glamorous world of Sixties London, which also features Rosamund Pike, Emma Thompson and Olivia Williams.

“It will cost a five-figure sum to take down all the venue décor and furnishings and turn the Café into the swinging Sixties,” reports our girl at the bar.

“The Café was also transformed for the Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller film, The Edge Of Love, but this will be far more dramatic – Orlando will be recording the whole transformation on his own camcorder.

“The film’s producers have quite a task on their hands – the Café’s owners want it all back to normal for their usual footballers and young pop stars by the weekend so everything will have to be put back in a frenzy.”

We are assuming that filming is to start very soon or has already begun in London. As yet, no official announcement has been made about the current filming status of 'An Education'.

Nick Hornby's Diary: The Blog

Nick Hornby ('About A Boy' and script writer for 'An Education') has started a Diary Blog for 'An Education'. In his first entry he has this to say...

‘An Education’, the script I have been working on for a while now, adapted from Lynn Barber’s autobiographical essay, is finally set to become an actual film. We are fully funded, and shooting starts in a couple of weeks, with Lone Scherfig directing. And we have a really amazing cast: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams, Rosamund Pike, Orlando Bloom, Emma Thompson…This, I think, is as good as it could possibly be, and gives the film an excellent shot at being something that people might want to see. And after all the frustrations of the last year or so, the apparently never-ending work on the script feels worthwhile.

Orlando Lands Education Role

ThisIsNorthScotland.com reports...

Orlando Bloom has apparently joined the cast of new movie An Education.

The Lord Of The Rings star will join Rosamund Pike, Emma Thompson and Peter Sarsgaard in the coming-of-age movie set in 60s London.

The film is based on British journalist Lynn Barber's memoir and the screenplay has been written by Nick Hornby, author of hit novels High Fidelity and About A Boy, both of which have been made into successful movies.

The story centres around Jenny (played by rising British star Carey Mulligan), a clever and beautiful 17-year-old who is introduced to a glamorous new life in London and lead astray by the older and unsuitable David, played by Jarhead star Peter Sarsgaard.

Orlando will play his charming business partner Danny, and former Bond girl Rosamund will play his girlfriend Helen.

An Education is being produced by BBC Films and Endgame Entertainment and will be directed by award-winning Danish director Lone Scherfig.

Bloom, Molina, Hawkins join 'Education'

Variety.com reports...

Orlando Bloom, Alfred Molina and Sally Hawkins, who won a Silver Bear in Berlin for “Happy-Go-Lucky,” have joined the cast of Lone Scherfig’s “An Education,” a coming-of-ager set in 1960s London.

Trio join Peter Sarsgaard, Rosumund Pike, Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams and emerging thesp Carey Mulligan (“And When Did You Last See Your Father?”).

Mulligan plays a witty and attractive 17-year-old, whisked off her feet by an unsuitable thirtysomething (Sarsgaard), who dazzles her with the high life.

Pic is scripted by Nick Hornby from an article by journalist Lynn Barber.

Endgame Entertainment and BBC Films developed and are financing the pic, which is produced by Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey.

Endgame’s James D. Stern, Douglas E. Hansen and Wendy Japhet, and David M. Thompson for BBC Films executive produce.

The film will shoot in London in March and April.

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