Details of Mike Leigh’s new film are beginning to emerge. The title, Hard Truths, and the leading cast have been confirmed.
Mike Leigh’s new film Hard Truths will be his first new release in five years. Mike Leigh’s films have been more sporadic in recent years, but it’s very much a case of quality over quantity, from Timothy Spall’s astonishing turn as Mr Turner in 2014 to 2018’s epic historical drama Peterloo.
Known for his improvisational method of creating characters, there is no script, in fact there us often no basic idea of what the plot will be when his actors are cast. Leigh begins by having private conversations with his actors about people they know in real life followed by an in-depth period of inprovisation. Actors are then introduced to each other and over an intensive couple of weeks, even months, the characters are developed.
From these improvisation sessions, which can last anything from a few weeks to a few months, Leigh then writes the final shooting script.
Hard Truths marks Leigh’s 16th feature film. The film will be about a “tough but compassionate intimate study of family life”. It will also have a contemporary setting, the last Leigh film to be set in the present day was 2010’s Another Year.
The film sees Leigh reunite with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who was Oscar nominated for her role as middle class optometrist Hortense in Leigh’s 1996 film Secrets and Lies. She stars alongside Michele Austin.
Leigh’s regular cohorts are back behind the camera, including producer Georgina Lowe, cinematographer Dick Pope, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, production designer Suzie Davis, composer Gary Yershon and casting director Nina Gold. Newcomers include editor Tania Reddin and make-up and hair designer Nora Robertson.
Though we know it is being distributed by Studiocanal in the UK, there is currently no release date for Hard Truths, we’ll keep you updated as we hear more.
