Oscar winner Dustin "Rain Man" Hoffman will co-star with actor Paul Giamatti in the upcoming $28-million feature-film adaptation of Canadian author Mordecai Richler's "Barney's Version".Produced by Toronto's Serendipity Point Films, Hoffman will play the role of 'Izzy', a retired cop and father of 'Barney'.
Production is set to start in Rome on Aug. 17, with scenes also being shot in New York, Montreal and the Quebec Laurentians.
The feature is being produced in association with Rome's Fandango and Montreal's Lyla Films.
Richler won the Giller Prize for 1997's "Barney's Version", written as the autobiography of a hard-drinking man who finally calms down after meeting the love of his life 'Miriam', while recounting his life in varying detail that includes friendship, romance and murder.
Screenplay was adapted by Montreal writer Michael Konyves to be directed by Richard J. "Whale Music" Lewis, noted as a writer/director of more than 50 episodes of TV series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation".Richler's "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz", starring actor Richard Dreyfuss, was adapted into a feature in 1974, children's novel "Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang" was twice adapted to the screen in 1978/1999, "St. Urbain's Horseman" became a CBC miniseries in 2007 and Lantos produced a 1985 version of Richler's "Joshua Then And Now", starring actor James Woods...
