Principal photography will begin in April 2011 on AUDREY HEPBURN’S NECK, an adaptation of the acclaimed 1996 novel by Alan Brown. Brown, who also wrote the screenplay, will direct for producer David Barrot on location in Tokyo . Krysten Ritter, Ari Graynor and Brian Geraghty will star in this romantic comedy-of-manners about a young Japanese man who is obsessed with slender American women, and his gay American friend, who has affairs with a series of Japanese men.
This will be Brown’s fourth feature as director, having just completed post-production on PRIVATE ROMEO, a contemporary rendering of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo And Juliet” that is expected to premiere on the festival circuit this spring. Filmed last summer in the New York area, Brown’s version of the classic is set entirely at a high school military academy, with the ” forbidden love” element of the original updated so that the star-crossed young lovers are both male and soldiers-in-training. Brown, (who shares screenwriting credit with Mr. Shakespeare) has cast the film with some of the most promising new faces on the Broadway scene, and his two leads Seth Numrich (“Romeo”) and Matt Doyle (“Juliet”) will both be starring in the eagerly anticipated NY production of “War Horse” which opens on April 14th. Agathe David-Weill produced the film, which also features Hale Appleman.
Hailed by Publishers Weekly as “captivating…delightfully buoyant and full of surprises,” “Audrey Hepburn’s Neck” was Brown’s first novel. A Fulbright Scholar who lived in Japan for seven years, he went on to write and direct the 2004 Sundance Competition entry, “The Book of Love,” starring Frances O’ Connor, Simon Baker, and Bryce Dallas Howard, and the 2007 drama, “Superheroes,” starring Dash Mihok, which was distributed by IFC. He made his filmmaking debut with the award-winning short, “O Beautiful,” which is part of the acclaimed “Boys Life” anthology series.
Following “Audrey Hepburn’s Neck,” Brown will re-team with his “Private Romeo” producer David-Weill, on “The Park,” based on Brown’s original screenplay.