Mark Rylance to play lead in feature adaptation of JM Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians

Los Angeles: Oscar-winner Mark Rylance has been cast as the lead in feature film adaptation of JM Coetzee’s novel Waiting for the Barbarians. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Ready Player One star was rumoured to be attached to the project but has officially joined it now. [caption id=“attachment_4734251” align=“alignnone” width=“824”] Image of oscar winner, Mark Rylance. Image from Facebook/ @Mark-Rylance-159274624193207/[/caption] The novel, penned in 1980 by the Nobel laureate, tells the story of a magistrate (Rylance) of “the Empire” who is working in a tiny frontier town, doing his best to ignore an inevitable war with the so-called “barbarians.” After he witnesses the cruel and unjust treatment of prisoners of war, he reconsiders his role in the regime and carries out a quixotic act of rebellion. The film, directed by Circo Guerra, will begin filming later in 2018 with principal photography in both Europe and North America. It is financed and produced by TaTaTu, a newly blockchain-based social entertainment platform by Andrea Iervolino. As per the same report, Iervolino said, “There is no one better suited or better equipped than Mark Rylance for a role as complex as that of the magistrate in waiting for the barbarians,” said Iervolino. “The story is his to own and bring to life in a way that only he can.”