Polanski finds lead for Oliver Twist remake
Roman Polanski has found the young lead for his next film, Oliver Twist, based on Charles Dickens’ classic novel.
After a screen test in Prague, where Oliver Twist will be shot, 10-year-old Barney Clarke won the role, Polanski said in Paris.
Ben Kingsley will play Fagin. Shooting begins on July 12.
Polanski said he had searched London’s drama schools to find the right actor - one with a Cockney accent typical of London’s East End.
He had chosen Barney from 30 possible candidates.
Polanski, who lives in Paris with his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, and their two children, told a press conference that it was time for Oliver Twist to make a comeback.
“It is destined for children, particularly my own children,” said Polanski, who saw and loved David Lean’s 1948 version as a child.
“It has been two generations since anyone touched it.”
Polanski won a best-director Oscar last year for The Pianist, which starred Adrien Brody as Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish-Jewish pianist who hid from the Nazis inside a Warsaw ghetto.
Polanski, who did not attend the ceremony in Los Angeles, said Harrison Ford has been keeping the Oscar for him.
Polanski faces arrest if he returns to the United States, resulting from 1977 charges of allegedly having unlawful sex with a minor.
