Paul Cox keen to shoot his next film in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Australian filmmaker Paul Cox, who mesmerised world cinema buffs with a handful of poetic films like ‘Innocence’, is planning to shoot his next movie ‘Force of Destiny’ in some scenic locations in Kerala with an Indian actress in the lead.

Cox said this here on the sidelines of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), where he is heading the jury for the competitive section. "The shooting of `Force of Destiny`, which would revolve round the story of a sculptor, is likely to begin in Australia in the mid of next year and I have plans to shoot some parts of the movie in Kerala," he said during an interaction with journalists yesterday. Kerala-based entrepreneur Boby Mathew Somatheeram has shown interest in co-producing the film, Cox said. ‘Lord of the Rings’ star David Wenham would play the protagonist and the rest of the actors is yet to be finalised, he said. Though he had earlier planned to shoot the film in China, the current Indian tour changed everything and the 72-year-old director decided to set the story in an Indian background, he said. Cox, who conceived and wrote the storyline for the movie when he was hospitalised recently, said "Force of Destiny" would be a film to create organ donor awareness. An admirer of Kerala`s lush greenery, culture and traditional architecture, Cox has a great fan following in the state. His name became familiar even among common film buffs in the state after controversies regarding some alleged similarities between his much acclaimed movie ‘Innocence’ and Blessy`s Malayalam film ‘Pranayam’ in which Mohanlal, Anupam Kher and Jayaprada played the main characters. However, he was generous enough to say that he had no problem even if the Malayalam movie drew inspiration from his film and also expressed keen interest to get a DVD of Blessy`s work. Besides ‘Innocence’, ‘Illuminations’, ‘Inside Looking Out’, ‘My First Wife’, ‘Salvation’, ‘Lonely Heart’ and ‘A Woman`s Tale’ are some of the movies to his credit which have won wide critical acclaim. His ‘Innocence’ was screened to a packed house here yesterday as part of IFFK. PTI