* Director: Istvan Szabo
* Writer: Ronald Harwood
* Producer: Robert Lantos
* Principal cast: Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Shaun Evans

As with many movies, producer Robert Lantos relied on key relationships to develop and complete his latest project, the US$18-million Canada/U.K./Hungary copro comedy Being Julia, which is set to open the Toronto International Film Festival at a gala presentation on Sept. 9.

Lantos recalls being instantly captivated by Ronald Harwood’s screenplay. ‘I thought it would make a film full of refined pleasures. It’s about love; it’s about lust. It’s about triumph, betrayal and revenge. And it’s about self-realization and self-discovery. These are universal themes and the essence of all good movies.’

In search of a director for Being Julia, Lantos reteamed with fellow Hungarian Istvan Szabo, his collaborator on Sunshine, which preemed at TIFF 1999.

Early 2001: Screenwriter Ronald Harwood sends Robert Lantos of Toronto’s Serendipity Point Films the first-draft screenplay of Being Julia, an adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s 1947 novel Theatre, about a middle-aged actress charmed by a younger man. Harwood is merely providing a sample of his work for consideration as the writer on Lantos’ forthcoming production The Statement, but Lantos is doubly impressed. Not only does he give Harwood the gig, but he buys the Being Julia script as well.

Shortly thereafter, the producer brings the screenplay to director Istvan Szabo, with whom he made Sunshine. Lantos’ pitch provides Szabo, whose film Mephisto won a 1982 Oscar for foreign film, a chance to lighten his load with a comedy, after a generation chronicling the political history of Middle Europe.

‘Istvan’s work has always been about matters of historic consequence – war, revolution, communism, Nazis, fascists. I thought the time had come for him to have a treat,’ Lantos recalls.

For his director of photography, Szabo turns to longtime collaborator Lajos Koltai, who also lensed Sunshine. Production designer Luciana Arrighi, who captured London at the turn of the century in Howards End and in the pre-war 1930s era in The Remains of the Day, is recruited for Being Julia, which is set in London’s gay theater world in 1938.

November 2002: Lantos and Szabo are deep in discussion about casting, especially on who should play Julia Lambert, the lead.

‘We had the usual discussions about cast while we were working on the script – ‘who is going to play this hugely demanding and deliciously juicy starring role?” Lantos remembers.

In the end, Annette Bening, coming off her Oscar-nominated performance in American Beauty, catches both their eyes and the starring role.

Jeremy Irons is then cast as Lambert’s husband, and newcomer Shaun Evans as her American boy toy. Costars who join the principal cast include Bruce Greenwood, Maury Chaykin, Michael Gambon, Juliet Stevenson and Lucy Punch.

March 23, 2003: Harwood wins the Academy Award for screenplay adaptation for Roman Polanski’s The Pianist.

April 2003: Of course, production can’t start on fumes. As the Cannes Film Festival nears, Lantos sets about nailing down financing. British producer Myriad Pictures and Grosvenor Park’s First Choice Films agree to invest. First Choice, a British sale-and-leaseback fund, provides 30% of the film’s budget in equity financing. ISL is on board as the minority Hungarian producer.

On the home front, Lantos calls upon his performance envelope from Men with Brooms. Other major Canadian funding sources include Astral Media and Corus Entertainment, and, to a lesser extent, Universal Canada and The Harold Greenberg Fund. Conventional television rights are licensed to CBC, while pay-TV rights are licensed to The Movie Network and Movie Central. Toronto distrib ThinkFilm, of which Lantos is a 50% owner, is to handle the Canadian release.

May 2003: Myriad, acting as sales agent, pitches the project to potential buyers in Paris and Rome. Complications arise when the U.K. government decides to clamp down on the accessibility of U.K. tax relief to copros it claims do not adequately benefit British cultural and economic interests. As a result, Myriad shuts down its London office and shifts its sales and distribution operations to Los Angeles. Just ahead of Cannes, London-based Summit Entertainment comes on board as the international sales agent in Myriad’s place.

At Cannes, Being Julia is presold to Sony Pictures Classics for key English-speaking territories, including the U.S. That deal extends the U.S. mini-major’s relationship with Serendipity, following Sony Classics’ theatrical commitment to The Statement.

June 2003: Production on Being Julia starts in London and Budapest. In all, shooting takes place over 54 days, 42 of which cover locations in Budapest and Kecskemet, Hungary. London, for the most part, hosts on-set shooting.

In Hungary, scouts had sought out Old World locations, full of wood paneling, big fireplaces and windows, large rooms and ornate chandeliers. Key scenes were shot in the famed Astoria and Gundel restaurants, the Moulin Rouge and the Radnoti theater. Some set pieces had to be imported from England for a British aesthetic: door handles, light switches, knives and forks. Even the flat sheets for Julia’s bed were purchased in England, because such bedding could not be located in Hungary.

August 2003: Shooting wraps. Post-production takes place in Toronto at Tattersall Casablanca (now Casablanca Magnetic North) with sound editor Fred Brennan, as well as at Theatre D Digital.

Some music is recorded at CBC, the mix is done at Deluxe Sound & Picture, Film Effects is in charge of opticals, and Gamma Studios handles title design.

Dec. 12, 2003: The Statement, directed by Norman Jewison and starring Michael Caine, opens in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto. Made for $27 million, it goes on to make a disappointing US$800,000 in worldwide box office.

June 2004: Toronto International Film Festival codirector Piers Handling taps Being Julia for his festival’s opening-night slot.

Sept. 9, 2004: Being Julia is Lantos’ ninth film to open the Toronto festival.

For ThinkFilm president Jeff Sackman, the opening-night position is a godsend in promoting Being Julia ahead of its North American release on Oct. 15.

Sackman is especially excited about the Roy Thomson Hall location for the gala screening, which he argues is perfectly suited to the film’s own London theater setting.

As well, Sackman insists Szabo’s light, deft treatment of Being Julia, making for an audience-pleasing film, is well suited to the opening-night slot in Toronto, where more serious art-house films have often stumbled before an audience of mostly industry types.

‘Being Julia plays to film buffs and people who only go to one festival film a year,’ he says.