Vera Farmiga and Mark Strong, two actors you can't help but adore in pretty much anything they do, are about to make a powerhouse duo in Closer to the Moon, an upcoming period drama set in Communist Romania. According to Deadline, the actors will play lovers in a fairly complicated story about a group of five Jewish men who pulled off a bank robbery under the cover of making a movie; the conspirators were sentenced to death thanks to their religion, but were also forced to re-enact the crime for the sake of a propaganda film. Strong plays one of the robbers, while Farmiga plays his partner and the mother of his child, who returns from her studies in Moscow once the crime goes down.
Nae Caranfil, the director behind the 2007 Romanian drama The Rest is Silence, will start production in Bucharest in early fall, though presumably Closer to the Moon will serve as his English-language directing debut. Though both Farmiga and Strong are more than familiar for their supporting roles in giant movies from this year (Farmiga from Source Code, Strong from Green Lantern), they're also both actors who never seem shy about pursuing their passions as well. Farmiga is releasing her directorial debut High Ground later this month, and Strong is going to be part of a terrific ensemble of other British acting talents in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the Cold War-era drama releasing later this fall. Closer to the Moon sounds like more of a passion project than, say, Farmiga's upcoming role in the crime thriller Safe House, but it's the mix that makes both her and Strong such interesting actors to watch.
