Cate Blanchett to Make Directorial Debut with THE DINNER

Cate Blanchett will soon take up a spot behind the camera - for the first time.

According to Deadline, the Oscar-winning actress is set to make her directorial debut with the film adaptation of Herman Koch's novel THE DINNER. THE MESSENGER's Oren Moverman is set to write the script.

The book is officially described as:

"An internationally bestselling phenomenon: the darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives -- all over the course of one meal.

It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse -- the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.

Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love."

Blanchett, an Academy Award-winning actress, came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She appeared as the elf queen Galadriel in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy from 2001 to 2003.

In 2004, Blanchett's portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator brought her numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Blanchett's other films include Babel (2006), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). She most recently appeared in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and is currently filming George Clooney's The Monuments Men. Blanchett has also signed on for Disney's reimagining of Cinderella, which Kenneth Branagh is set to direct.

Photo Credit: BEImages

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