After an almost four-decade-long career as a revered actor, Kristin Scott Thomas, the Oscar-nominated star of The English Patient, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Gosford Park, and Darkest Hour, is turning her hand to directing—and her first project is decidedly buzzy.
Titled My Mother’s Wedding, it’s billed as a compelling family drama about three romantically dysfunctional sisters who are trying to navigate their mother’s third wedding. At its heart is a formidable quartet of actors: Sienna Miller, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Beecham, and Scott Thomas herself. The film’s log line reads: “Three sisters return to their childhood home for a momentous weekend; the third wedding of their twice-widowed mother, Diana (Scott Thomas). The three daughters are from very different walks of life: Georgina (Beecham), a palliative nurse; Victoria (Miller), a Hollywood star; and Katherine (Johansson), a captain in the Royal Navy. Over the weekend, the family gathers to celebrate a new marriage, but mother and daughters alike are forced to revisit the past and confront the future, with help from a colorful group of unexpected wedding guests.”
“I have wanted to direct for a long time and it was thrilling to create this fictional family using my own childhood memories as a springboard,” Scott Thomas, who has co-written the script with John Micklethwait, said in a statement. “Directing and acting with such talented actresses and reuniting with Scarlett Johansson has been exhilarating.” This is, of course, the third time Scott Thomas has played Johansson’s mother, after 1998’s The Horse Whisperer and 2008’s The Other Boleyn Girl. Meanwhile, rounding out the cast is Freida Pinto, Sex Education’s Sindhu Vee, Anatomy of a Scandal’s Joshua McGuire, Game of Thrones’s Mark Stanley, Call My Agent!’s Thibault de Montalembert, and Scott Thomas’s Four Weddings and a Funeral co-star James Fleet.
On July 27, Scott Thomas confirmed that principal photography had wrapped on the release, and revealed an intriguing first look. The image shows the three sisters leaning over a dinner table crammed with leftovers and half-empty glasses of red wine. Johansson’s Katherine looks mildly amused, Beecham’s Georgina intrigued, and Miller’s Victoria somewhat concerned. It’s still unclear if the film will lean closer to comedy or tragedy but, either way, with this level of star power on display, we’re sure to be watching.
