Fresh from a **Nottingham **spring spent frolicking in the forests of Sherwood, Cate Blanchett has signed up for Indian Summer, Joe Wright's period drama set in the turbulent, bloody final days of the British Empire.
Set in 1947, **Indian Summer **sees Blanchett play Lady Edwina Mountbatten, wife of Lord Mountbatten's Viceroy of India, who helps her husband oversee the handover of power in the country to Jawaharlal Nehru. To say that this didn't go well would be understating things, with the country pitched into an unprecedented period of bloodshed and disorder. Gladiator writer William Nicholson is adapting the story from Alex von Tunzelmann's book.
Blanchett rarely makes a misstep when picking her roles and she'll have plenty to get her teeth into as Lady Edwina. With an acute intelligence, hard-partying socialite lifestyle and a string of affairs, Edwina achieved fame and notoriety in her lifetime, but also went on to make a significant contribution to post-Partition India.
Covering some of the same end-of-Empire themes as Atonement, albeit on the subcontinent rather than mainland Europe, Indian Summer has an ambitious, David Lean-y feel to it. No word yet on who will play Lord Mountbatten, so here's your chance to post your tips below... (Clue: he's got to be in his late 40s)