Word has broken at the Cannes Festival of final casting for the film of my first novel, The Song of Names. Hoffman and Hopkins have signed up to play Dovidl and Martin in an international production, directed by Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog).

The Hollywood Reporter was first with the story. Shooting is scheduled for later this year and release for 2011. Further details will follow as soon as I am allowed to disclose them – especially, how the music is going to work since it is so integral to the story. The score will be by Titanic composer, James Horner.

The producer, Nick Hirschkorn, has moved mountains to make this happen in a climate when the big studios are slamming down the hatches and the little ones are trying to make movies on minuscule budgets.

Movie rights in The Song of Names were sold well before it won a Whitbread Award in 2003. This development has been a long time coming to fruition, but all the sweeter to see it happening in a time of such harsh financial realism.

More background can be be found here.

And here’s some rapid comment from New York magazine.