Titanic and Demon Knight star Billy Zane is taking on what could be his biggest movie role yet in Waltzing With Brando. A biopic about late actor Marlon Brando of The Godfather fame, the film has gotten a release update along with a new look at Zane in the lead role.
Per Variety, Waltzing With Brando is now set to have its world premiere at Italy's Torino Film Festival. The festival runs from Nov. 22-30 under the direction of Giulio Base, who said of Zane's performance in Waltzing With Brando, "You won't believe it: he is possessed by Marlon Brando." The full lineup for the festival will be officially announced on Nov. 7, though it's been confirmed that Waltzing With Brando will be the closing film. Additionally, the 100th anniversary of Brando's birth will also be celebrated with a 24-title retrospective of films. Meanwhile, a new look at Zane as Brando has been revealed, and the full-size image can be seen below.
Although Marlon Brando gave a career-defining performance in The Godfather, his participation was contingent on this beloved actor not being cast.
Waltzing With Brando is directed by Bill Fishman, and the film is based on the book by Bernard Judge, the Last Tango in Paris star's architect. The film focuses on the period of time when Brando recruited Judge "from his stable existence and convinced him that he should build the world’s first ecologically perfect retreat on the tiny uninhabitable Tahitian island of Tetiaroa." Most of the movie was shot on location in Tetiaroa, adding further authenticity to the film beyond making Zane look like a spitting image of Brando.
Zane previously shared a sneak peek at himself playing Brando with images posted to Instagram. It was clear then from those images that the casting may have been perfect, given how uncanny the resemblance is between Zane in character along with the real Brando. Zane has also addressed the project in interviews, at one point sharing how the film is not a traditional biopic that tells someone's entire story, instead focusing on one pivotal period of time in Brando's life.
The Godfather trilogy would have turned out differently if another actor was cast as a main character in the film.
"The tone of the movie is.... It’s not your average biopic, it's not a cradle-to-grave story," Zane said, per Entertainment Weekly. "It's a five-year period, and a unique friendship between his architect and him, trying to figure out sustainable design in the late sixties and early seventies in Tahiti. It’s curiously a really great lens on a figure, as opposed to trying to tell a whole lifetime."
It’s not your average biopic, it's not a cradle-to-grave story.
Waltzing With Brando will have its world premiere at the Torino Film Festival; it does not yet have a wide release date.
Source: Variety
