Spanish production company Gheko Films is pushing ahead with a remake of Nigel Cole’s Sundance winner Saving Grace three years after it bought the rights.

The company has lined up local stars Carmen Maura and Antonio De La Torre for the remake, which will be called Salvar A Maria. It will be directed by Seville film-maker Alvaro Begines.

Salvar A Maria will mirror the original film telling the story of a middle-aged woman who, saddled with debt following the death of her husband, turns to growing marijuana with her gardener to make money. It will be set in northern Spain.

Maura, star of such films as Pedro Almodovar’s Volver and Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro, will play the leading lady and Torre will take the role of the gardener.

Gheko Films’ producers Bruce St Clair and Alejandra Frade are currently looking for financing for the project and hope to shoot later this year or in 2010.

Begines’ previous film Scandalous (Por Que Se Frotan Las Patitas), starring Raul Arevalo, proved popular in Spain, especially at the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival where it premiered in 2006.

Gheko Films is also planning to produce the film Icaro based on the best selling book Icarus by Alberto Vazquez-Figueroa. It tells the story of Jimmie Angel, pioneer of the early days of aviation, who was the personal pilot to Lawrence of Arabia. The script for the film has been written by Ragnar Bragason and Otto Geir Borg and Gheko Films is also looking for financing for the project.

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