New Line was nice enough to provide Cinematical with the exclusive one-sheet for Love in the Time of Cholera (click on the poster for a larger version), based on Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez's novel of the same name. Adapted for the screen by Oscar winner Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) and directed by Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Love in the Time of Cholera tells the tale of two lovers, Florentino Ariza (Javier Bardem) and Fermina Daza (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), one more obsessed than the other, who part ways at an early age to live two very different lives. The film then tracks each over the years (we're talking late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century), while Fermina settles down with a doctor (Benjamin Bratt) her father forces her to wed and Florentino engages in 622 affairs (not kidding about that) in an attempt to mask the pain he feels due to the one that got away. Also starring in this sure-to-be-an-Oscar-contender are Liev Schreiber, John Leguizamo, the very lovely (and talented) Catalina Sandino Moreno and Hector Elizondo. Love in the Time of Cholera (which also happens to be one of my favorite titles of all time for a number of reasons -- love is but a disease, after all) arrives in theaters on November 16.

It's taken several years, but it looks like Mike Newell's screen version of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's classic, Love in the Time of Cholera, is finally coming together. Back in February, New Line had screenwriter Ronald Harwood hard at work on the script, and quickly signed Javier Bardem to star as "Florentino Ariza, more antihero than hero, a mock Don Juan with an undertaker's demeanor, at once pathetic, grotesque and endearing." With that fantastic casting move under its belt, the studio went mostly quiet for a while (Benjamin Bratt and Giovanna Mezzogiorno were both brought on board during that time), presumably working on the boring parts of pre-production that the trades don't report.

Now, though, the casting department is back at work, and John Leguizamo (YAY!), Hector Elizondo and Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro have all signed the dotted line and agreed to take part in the film; production kicks off in a couple weeks in locations from England to Columbia Colombia, and the movie is due out some time next year.

Edit: ARG. The country name has been corrected, sorry. Some day we will get it right the first time.