Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whittaker and Mark Strong have gathered together in Budapest today for a massive party. Not really – they’ve actually all travelled to the Hungarian capital to begin work on the screen adaptation of C.P Taylor’s play, Good. Set during the height of German nationalism, the movie will see Mortensen take the lead role of Professor and family man John Halder – an author whose literary output endears him to a string of powerful political leaders in The Third Reich.
“Good is everything you don't expect from a period film set against such a calamitous moment in history,” says director Vicente Amorim: “It's colourful, exciting, funny and utterly relevant. This film involves us in the buzz of a nation on the rise where anything is possible and 'good' people get caught up in a stampede that is heading over a cliff.”
The film is populated by a strong British supporting cast that includes Steven Mackintosh, Gemma Jones and Ruth Gemmell. The cameras started rolling today, with the finished product due for release in 2008. Meanwhile, you’ll soon be able to catch Mortensen opposite Naomi Watts in David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises when it hits screens at the end of the year, while Jason Isaacs will be once again conjuring up all sorts of nastiness as Lucius Malfoy in this summer’s Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix.