We've known that Ralph Fiennes was planning to direct a film about Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev since at least 2015, when the first details were announced. He's largely locked in the cast for what is now called The White Crow, but has added one more person as he keeps on preparing to make it. The actor is someone he's worked with before and knows fairly well: Ralph Fiennes.
With a script by David Hare that adapts Julie Kavanagh's book Rudolf Nureyev, the film will chart the iconic dancer's defection from the Soviet Union in 1961 and the KGB's attempts to stop him.
Planning to split his time between work behind the camera and playing Nuryev's mentor Pushkin, Fiennes has Oleg Ivenko, Sergei Polunin, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Chulpan Khamatova, Laurent Lafitte, Raphaël Personnaz, Calypso Valois and Louis Hofmann in the ensemble, and plans to start the cameras rolling this summer in St Petersburg and Paris. He's secured access to legendary performance venues including the Marlinsky Theatre and the Palais Garnier with the backing of BBC Films. The drama will likely be on screens next year.