Winslet, Foster, Waltz and Dillon Set for Polanski's “God of Carnage”

Not one to be hindered by lingering legal issues, Roman Polanski has lined up an impressive -- if odd -- cast for an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning play "God of Carnage."

Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and Matt Dillon have signed on to play two married couples who come together one evening to discuss the playground altercation that left one of their kids with a hefty dental bill.The night turns into a comedy of errors and manners as the two couples fail to find common ground on questions of right and wrong, the nature and value of apologies and just about everything else.

Written by Yasmina Reza, the original story took place in France, but the film will be set in Brooklyn, presumably the Cobble Hill neighborhood that served as the location for the Broadway run. And yet, the film will shoot in France because Polanski got a 13-year-old girl drunk, fed her drugs and had sex with her more than 30 years ago.

The original Broadway production, which ran for eight months, starred James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden as a well-off-but-blue-collar couple, and Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis as a pair of high-octane yuppie strivers. The play would go on to win Best Play, Best Director for Matthew Warchus and Best Actress for Harden at the 2009 Tonys, with the rest of the cast also being nominated.

We were underwhelmed by the show, as it devolved repeatedly into slapsticky nonsense without making any grand enough points about antyhing. But we love the cast and as much as we frown on rapping children -- or anyone else -- Polanski is a truly great director so we're eager to see it. The film begins shooting in February.

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