Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley, Italian actress Monica Bellucci and Israeli actor Itay Tiran (Lebanon) have signed on to star in Spider in the Web, a contemporary thriller from Israeli director Eran Riklis (Lemon Tree).
Kingsley plays Adereth, a highly lauded secret agent now judged by his superiors to be past his prime, who gets an opportunity for redemption when he discovers a lead on the sale of chemical weapons to a Middle Eastern dictator.
The story, from a script by Gidon Maron and Emmanuel Nakkache, is inspired by real events.
Shooting on the Israel/Belgium/Holland/Portugal co-production is set to start in the spring. Fabien Westerhoff’s Film Constellation is co-financing and handling worldwide sales and will introducing the project to buyer at Berlin’s European Film Market next month.
Riklis is producing Spider in the Web together with Michael Sharfshtein of Topia Communications alongside Moshe and Leon Edery of United King Films, Jacqueline de Goeij for Cine Cri de Coeur, Sabine Brian and Ronald Versteeg for NL Films and Eyal Edery for Dragocom. Westerhoff, Ira Riklis, and Dana Lustig are executive producing.
