HBO, BBC co-producing film with Hillary Swank, Brenda Blethyn

MUMBAI: Hilary Swank and Brenda Blethyn have been cast to star in Mary & Martha, a new 90-minute film written by Richard Curtis ?Four Weddings And A Funeral?and directed by Phillip Noyce ?Salt?.

The film will be made by Working Title Television for BBC One and HBO Films, and shown in the UK during the run up to Red Nose Day.

?Mary & Martha? stars Swank as Mary and Blethyn as Martha, an American and an English woman who have little in common apart from the one terrible thing - they both lose sons to malaria. Mary takes her young son, George (Lux Hanley Jardine), to Africa, promising adventure and fun when he contracts the disease, while Martha?s son, Ben (Sam Claflin), dies while working as a volunteer in Mozambique. Mary returns to America and begins a one woman campaign to raise awareness of the disease ? while Martha herself volunteers at the orphanage where Ben worked.

Both of them find their new lives hard and complicated but finally, together, the two immensely different women join forces, and go on an epic journey to try and make a difference in the world. Curtis and Noyce will mix comedy and humanity in with the tragedy and seriousness of the subject matter.

Curtis said, ?I?ve always wanted to write a film about the fact that when you have children, there?s always the possibility of extreme joy and extreme sorrow. And over the years working with Comic Relief, I have come across the tragedy of the startling number of lives taken by malaria every year. This film gives me a chance to write about that too ? as well as working with a team of people I hugely admire ? Brenda Blethyn, Hilary Swank and the great Australian director, Phillip Noyce.?

Blethyn said, ?This long overdue story of Mary & Martha is Richard Curtis at his best. A remarkable story of the courage, dignity and humour of two very different women in their effort to make the world a better place. I?m thrilled to be working with the wonderfully inspiring director Phillip Noyce, and to be sharing the screen with the classy and totally brilliant Hilary Swank. What more do you need to know??

BBC One controller Danny Cohen said, ?A world class mix of talent has been assembled for Richard Curtis? new film for BBC One, a story that is heartbreaking and uplifting all at once - and one that I?m humbled to be in a position to commission as part of the channel?s Comic Relief schedule for 2013.?

Filming began this week and is taking place in America and South Africa.