Oliver Parker, in Edinburgh for the UK premiere of his latest Oscar Wilde adaptation The Importance Of Being Earnest on Wednesday (Aug 21) and a Script Factory masterclass on Saturday Aug 17, revealed his next project will be a step away from the Wilde side of his career.

After An Ideal Husband and now Earnest, Parker will next tackle a post-war Italian thriller which he had intended to do between the two Wilde comedies. "That one we nearly made before The Importance Of Being Earnest but it was quite hard getting the money together and it was not so obviously commercial" he told a press conference. John Sayles (Lone Star, Sunshine State) wrote the original drafts of the script which Parker is now reworking.

This doesn't mean that Parker has abandoned Oscar however. He is currently developing an adaptation of Dorian Gray as a producer and revealed that the comedies were something he continually rethought, "I would remake the film (An Ideal Husband) already and in a few months probably (Earnest) as well."