Sam Mendes Casts Michael Ward to Star Opposite Olivia Colman in EMPIRE OF LIGHT

Director Sam Mendes has hired Michael Ward (Top Boy, The Old Guard, Small Axe) to star opposite Olivia Colman in the Searchlight Pictures drama Empire of Light.

While plot details are under wraps, the film is described as love story, set in and around a beautiful old cinema, on the South Coast of England in the 1980s. Mendes will also reunite with his 1917 cinematographer Roger Deakins.

Deadline reports, “Mendes has been taking his time in finding Colman’s co-star and in recent weeks Ward began positioning himself as a choice for the role. Following a table read that blew away Mendes and execs, insiders say he was the clear cut choice with an offer recently being handed down to him.”

The film will mark Mendes first since his Oscar-winning World War I drama 1917, and he also penned the script, so that marks his first solo script. The film will be produced by Mendes and Pippa Harris’ Neal Street Productions. Production is expected to star in fall of 2022.