It is confirmed, the Oscar-winning interpreter of Gandhi (1982) will play the famous painter Salvador Dali in the biopic Dali Land. A shoot announced for the end of 2018 between Canada and Spain where Ben Kingsley will play with Lesley Manville, Tim Roth and Frank Dillane.
At the initiative of this biopic we find the Canadian director, producer and screenwriter Mary Harron. She directed the film American Psycho. Dali Land will highlight the mythical couple Salvador Dali and Gala. Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) will play the artist's authoritarian woman and muse. The spectator will discover their unique marriage through the eyes of James, a young assistant of the painter, played by Frank Dillane (Fear of the Walking Dead). Having to help the artist in the organization of a major event, the young man will be immersed in the shenanigans, power games and other disillusionments of the artistic world. A film where Ben Kingsley will also be surrounded by British actor Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction, The Dirty Eight, Lie to me) who will play the right arm of the painter.
It will not be a first for Sir Ben Kingsley to embody a historical figure. In 1982 he had already metamorphosed into Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's eponymous Indo-British film. It was with this role that he won the Oscar for Best Actor and the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama in 1983.
The film co-written by Mary Harron and her husband John C. Walsh will be produced by Edward R. Pressman (already producer of American Psycho in 2000). He also spoke in Deadline about the work of the director:
"I am proud to work with visionary Mary Harron on Dali Land. I think his sense of cosmic irony will fit perfectly with the story of the flamboyant, contradictory and imposing Salvador Dalí."
Ben Kingsley will succeed Robert Pattinson and Adrien Brody in the incarnation of the surrealist painter. Paul Morrisson and Woody Allen had briefly brought Dali to life in their respective works Little Ashes (2009) and Midnight in Paris (2011). But if in the latter it was only an appearance, Salvador and his megalomania will have the leading role in Dali Land.
