Ritesh Batra to direct Oscar-winner in English film

Indian director of “The Lunchbox” fame Ritesh Batra will helm a movie adaptation of Julian Barnes’s novel “The Sense of an Ending”, and it will star Oscar-winning actor Jim Broadbent.

“I am thrilled to adapt one of my favourite novels to screen and to work with a great team. Julian Barnes’s characters are an important part of my life and work, and I am very much looking forward to spend time with them, and with Jim Broadbent whom I have always admired,” Batra said in a statement.

Broadbent, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the 2001 film “Iris”, is popular for his work in “Topsy Turvy”, “Moulin Rouge”, “Paddington”, “Cloud Atlas”, “The Iron Lady” and well-known series “Harry Potter”.

To be shot in Britain later this year, “The Sense of an Ending” follows a retired man who receives an unexpected letter from a lawyer that forces him to confront his own past – and unfulfilling present – including the suicide of his childhood best friend. The film marks the first screenplay by Nick Payne.

Film Nation Entertainment holds worldwide rights and will co-finance the project with BBC Films. Origin Pictures’ David Thompson and Ed Rubin are producers on the movie.

Batra’s debut feature film “The Lunchbox” earned him wide international acclaim for telling a simple tale of a love-lorn wife and a lonely man and how letters through a ‘lunchbox’ bind them.

Inputs by IANS