Weisz Makes History With Amenabar

Alejandro Amenabar’s untitled movie has added three new players: Rachel Weisz, Ashraf Barhom and Oscar Isaac.

Amenabar wrote and is directing the project, being prepped for a major shoot in Malta. Though shrouded in secrecy (aren’t they all?), we know it’s a historical drama set in early Egypt, and that it concerns a slave who turns to Christianity in his quest for freedom, while also falling in love with his master, Hypatia (Weisz) a female philosophy professor and atheist.

Barhom, who stole scenes in “The Kingdom” and also stars in the Oscar-nominated Palestinian film “Paradise Now,” will play a zealous Christian monk named Ammonius. Isaac, who played Joseph in New Line’s “The Nativity Story” and appears in Steven Soderbergh’s “Guerilla,” is set to play Orestes, who has an unrequited love for Hypatia.

Sunmin Park and Fernando Bovira are producing the film, which sometimes operates under the title “Mists of Time,” and aiming for a March start date, despite several setbacks — including workers striking over late payments. 

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter; Getty Images