You already know we think a lot of Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio (which just scooped four BIFAs). So we’re excited to learn that he’s hard at work on another project, The Duke Of Burgundy.
Berberian co-star Chiara D’Anna will star in the film, described as a dark melodrama. She plays an amateur lepidopterist – one who studies moths and butterflies, fact fans! – whose wayward desires cause trouble in her relationship.
In case you were wondering, the title does not point to his being a stealth tribute to Anchorman, but instead to the name of a butterfly subfamily. Empire news: it’s educashun in acshun!
“After damaging my eardrums with too many screams during the Berberian sound mix, I wanted to make something tender and quiet, but also quite intense. It's a simple love story about a devoted couple whose intimate needs are rarely in harmony,” Strickland says in a statement.
He’s developing this new film in concert with Sightseers director Ben Wheatley’s company Rook Films as the first non-Wheatley project to clank through the system. Strickland is getting some funding from the BFI Film Fund and is looking to shoot next year.
And if you’ve not yet caught Berberian Sound Studio, it hits home (video) on December 31.