The star will play a feisty, alcoholic grandmother in Matthew Saville's film, which Celsius is launching at the European Film Market.
Charlotte Rampling — a Berlinale Silver Bear winner in 2015 thanks to Andrew Haigh's drama 45 Years — is heading back to Berlin with her latest project.
The British art house icon is to star in the darkly comic drama Juniper, from New Zealander director Matthew Saville (Hitch Hike, Dive), playing a feisty alcoholic grandmother alongside Marton Csokas (Loving, Into the Badlands, Kingdom of Heaven).
Celsius Entertainment is handling worldwide sales rights (outside of Australia/New Zealand) to the feature — now in production — and will launch the project at the European Film Market in Berlin next week.
Juniper centers on a teenager (played by newcomer George Ferrier) who, after being suspended from his boarding school, arrives home to find that his grandmother (Rampling) has moved in. Life couldn’t get any worse — he is struggling with suicidal thoughts and is now furious about having to take care of someone he doesn’t know. But the person he meets is far from what he expected: a funny, rude, fearless, flirtatious woman who can drink him and his friends under the table. What follows is the hilarious and poignant story of a friendship that dissolves the boundaries of generations.
Written and directed by Saville, Juniper — which Transmission Films has acquired for Australia and New Zealand — is being produced by Desray Armstrong (Stray, Coming Home in the Dark) and Angela Littlejohn (Slow West, Loveland) in association with the New Zealand Film Commission, the New Zealand Screen Production Grant, Fulcrum Media Finance and Celsius Entertainment. Executive producers are Andrew Mackie, Richard Payton, Mark Chamberlain, Thierry Wase-Bailey and Henriette Wollmann.
Rampling — who won the 2017 Volpi Cup award in Venice for her role in Italian drama Hannah and recently starred in Red Sparrow alongside Jennifer Lawrence — will next be seen in Denis Villeneuve's all-star Dune adaptation.
