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Daniel Day Lewis is retiring from acting. NOT! Consider the evidence. Despite the repeated rumours that this titan of the screen is giving up his day job to hide out in Ireland, his work schedule makes these seem more unfounded than ever.

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It is something like ten years since DDL opined that he would rather be a cobbler in his remote Irish cottage than an film stalwart. Yet every year or so since he had turned up with some astounding performance in a landmark picture.

Now he has gone one better and decided to direct a film.

Admittedly he is doing the directing in front of the camera, in a film called Nine, directed by Rob (Chicago) Marshall.

Nine, originally a Broadway musical, is loosely based on Federico Fellini's 1963 classic 8 ½ and features Day Lewis as a world famous but harried film director, Guido Contini, as he prepares his latest picture and fights to cope with the numerous women in his life.

And what women they all are! Definitely females unlikely to cowed ...

... even by a talent of Day Lewis’s scope.

Kate Hudson is the latest to join the cast, as a fashion journalist, alongside Nicole Kidman, as the film star; Marianne Cotillard, as the wife; Penelope Cruz, as the sultry mistress; Judi Dench, as a costume designer/confidante; and Sophia Loren, as the mother.

One decidedly juicy role remains to be cast: the part of a prostitute from the director's past. Keira Knightley, perhaps?

The late, much lamented Anthony Minghella co-adapted the screenplay.

Producer Harvey Weinstein stated: “Inspired by Fellini, one of cinema’s most profound auteurs, Minghella’s dramatic writing and Marshall’s dynamic staging will provide the actors with a daring opportunity to showcase their artistic potential.”

Filming is scheduled to start in the UK on October 10.

Posted July 17, 2008.