Colourful details have emerged of Mister Lonely, the latest feature from Tennessee and London-basedmaverick Harmony Korine (Gummo, Julien Donkey Boy). 60s icon Anita Pallenberg is to play the Queen OfEngland, Denis Lavant will portray Charlie Chaplin, Samantha Morton is MarilynMonroe and Diego Luna will play a Michael Jackson impersonator

"I am trying to do things I haven't done before.It's my most ambitious film. I really want to push myself visually," Korinetold Screen International. The $9.5 million production, his first feature since1999, is due to shoot in the north of Scotland, France and French Guyana. CelluloidDreams is handling international sales and has already closed a deal with Gagafor Japan.

The plotline is outlandish, even by Korine'sstandards. This is a yarn about a young American lost in Paris, eking out aliving as a Michael Jackson lookalike. By co-incidence, he meets MarilynMonroe. He follows her to a commune in Scotland, joining her husband CharlieChaplin and her daughter Shirley Temple. Fellow residents include The Pope, TheQueen of England, Madonna and James Dean. The drama is also partly set In aBrazilian forest where a community of missionary nuns bring aid to the locals.

Korine co-scripted with Avi Korine. Executiveproduced by Nadja Romain for Love Streams, the film is co-produced by Korine'snew production outfit, O'Salvation, Agnes b's Love Streams Productions and ARTE(France) The cinematographer is Marcel Zyskind.

The director describes O'Salvation, launched earlierthis year, as "an outlet to make films away from the system or the machine."The company has already produced Blackberry Winter by Brent Stewart and Aluminium Fowl by James Clauer.