In Rotterdam last week for the festival screening of EnduringLove, British director Roger Michellrevealed further details of two future projects he is working on with WorkingTitle.

Michell is about to take the leap into producing with theWorking Title backed Marathon, aportmanteau picture about six people competing in the London Marathon, one ofthe biggest events of its kind in the world.

The project is being written and directed by Tim Sullivan (Jackand Sarah.) Michell describes it as 'awonderfully pluralistic English movie with lots of stories meeting and minglingin that incredible stew of the marathon it's very, very moving.It's all classes, all ages and all ethnicities.'

Race director David Bedford is working closely with theproduction. 'He is keen to give us all access to all parts of the race onrace day,' Michell said. He added that the filmmakers plan to use 15cameras to film during the actual race.

Meanwhile, Michell is attached to direct The Rip, the David Logan-scripted drama about the plan tostage a diamond robber at the London Millennium Dome. The film is based looselyon the real-life incident in which a gang of criminals raided the Dome inGreenwich in 2000. Michell characterises the project as 'a big, brainless,clever heist movie.' Logan is currently working on a new draft of thescript.

Michell is also attached to direct a new version of HuckleberryFinn from a script by Michael Tolkin.Paramount is backing the project, which Michell is billing it as 'thefirst adult version' of Hucklebery Finn. He says it will be more akin to Heart OfDarkness than to the typical kids'movie.

'If you take Tom Sawyer out of the book, you'releft with a very compelling, quite dark account of an America riven byreligious fundamentalism, bigotry, terrible, terrible arbitrary violence,racism, ignorance, racism and superstition,' Michell said.

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