Two-time Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz head the cast of the romantic thriller "The Constant Gardener," adapted by Jeffrey Caine from the novel of the same name by John le Carré and filmed on location in Berlin, London, and Nairobi and numerous other parts of Kenya. The international filmmaking team behind The Constant Gardener includes producer Simon Channing Williams (Academy Award nominee for Secrets & Lies), director of photography César Charlone (Academy Award nominee for Mr. Meirelles' City of God), editor Claire Simpson (Academy Award winner for Platoon), production designer Mark Tildesley (28 Days Later...), and costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux (Dirty Pretty Things).
In a remote area of Northern Kenya, the region's most dedicated activist, the brilliant and passionate Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz), has been found brutally murdered. Tessa's travelling companion, a local doctor, appears to have fled the scene, and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston), Sir Bernard Pellegrin (Bill Nighy), and the other members of the British High Commission assume that Tessa's widower, their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), will leave the matter to their discretion. They could not be more wrong...
This career diplomat's equilibrium has been exploded by the loss of the woman he was deeply devoted to. They were opposites whose attraction sustained a marriage, the memories of which now spur Justin to take decisive action for the first time in his life and diplomatic career. Haunted by remorse and jarred by rumors of his wife's infidelities, Justin surprises himself by plunging headlong into a dangerous odyssey. Determined to clear his wife's name and "finish what she started," Justin embarks on a crash course to learn about the pharmaceutical industry, whose crimes Tessa was on the verge of uncovering, and journeys across two continents in search of the truth. His eyes are soon opened to a vast conspiracy at once deadly and commonplace, one that has claimed innocent lives - and is about to put his own at risk.
A Focus Features Presentation in association with the U.K. Film Council of a Potboiler Production in association with Scion Films. Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz. The Constant Gardener. Danny Huston, Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite. Casting Director, Leo Davis. Makeup & Hair Designer, Christine Blundell. Music Composer, Alberto Iglesias. Costume Designer, Odile Dicks-Mireaux. Editor, Claire Simpson. Production Designer, Mark Tildesley. Director of Photography, César Charlone. Co-Producer, Tracey Seaward. Co-Producers, Henning Molfenter, Thierry Potok. Executive Producers, Gail Egan, Robert Jones, Donald Ranvaud, Jeff Abberley, Julia Blackman. Based upon the novel by John le Carré. Screenplay by Jeffrey Caine. Produced by Simon Channing Williams. Directed by Fernando Meirelles. A Focus Features Release.
RACHEL WEISZ (Tessa Quayle)
Rachel Weisz will soon be seen starring in Darren Aronofsky's much-anticipated third feature, The Fountain, with Hugh Jackman.
An actress who has demonstrated an accomplished range both in her choice of projects and her performances in them, she was most recently seen in Francis Lawrence's Constantine. Known to audiences worldwide for her lead role opposite Brendan Fraser in Stephen Sommers' blockbuster movies The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, Ms. Weisz' other films include Gary Fleder's Runaway Jury; James Foley's Confidence; Chris and Paul Weitz' About a Boy; Jean-Jacques Annaud's Enemy at the Gates; Michael Winterbottom's I Want You; David Leland's The Land Girls; Beeban Kidron's Swept from the Sea; and Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty.
The Focus Features release The Shape of Things marked her first venture into producing motion pictures. She had previously starred in writer/director Neil LaBute's stagings of his original play of the same name, in both London and New York City.
Ms. Weisz' performance in Sean Mathias' U.K. staging of Noel Coward's Design for Living garnered her the London Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Newcomer. She also starred in the West End production of Suddenly Last Summer, again directed by Sean Mathias. Her significant theatrical background extends back to her time as a student at Cambridge University. With two colleagues, she formed the Talking Tongues Theatre Group, which performed numerous experimental pieces and won the prestigious Guardian Award at the Edinburgh Festival.
