US actors Matt Dillon and Jeremy Irons, as well as Virginie Ledoyen, who plays opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in 20th Century Fox's upcoming The Beach, have been confirmed for the leads in American veteran director Irvin Kershner's Cecilia, a $15 million triangle drama to shoot from 25 October 1999, on locations in Italy, including the late Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's own villa in Luca.

Announced yesterday (14 May) at Cannes by BV International Pictures' president Bjorg Veland, who will handle international sales, the film will be produced by George-Alain Vuille, of Ashanti, Claire De Femme and Betty Blue fame. "Puccini is my favourite composer, so 14 years ago I started working on his biography. But agreeing with Alfred Hitchcock that 'drama is real life with all the dull parts cut out', I decided to develop it for a feature," said Kershner, who directed The Empire Strikes Back, Never Say Never Again and Robocop 2.

An original screenplay by Kershner and Mitchell Lifton, Cecilia is the story of a butcher's daughter (Ledoyen) who wants to become an opera singer. In 1919 she entertains at a military hospital, and falls in love with a young soldier (Dillon). During the Mussolini regime she tours with a troupe of not-so-good singers, performing in "tacky costumes and improvised sets", and this is where she learns her art. When Puccini (Irons) - five years before his death - comes into her life, taking over the job of coaching her, her former lover turns up, the son of a wealthy impresario and music publisher who can also help her. Jorn Rossing Jensen