Shooting for Sam Mendes' next movie falls through

12-Sep-2010 • Skyfall

The Telegraph can disclose that shooting on his much-vaunted adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel On Chesil Beach has been called off, amid claims that its backers have got cold feet after the last three films directed by Mendes, who announced his separation from Winslet, 34, in March, performed poorly at the box office.

Shooting had been due to start next month on the film, in which Carey Mulligan, the acclaimed star of An Education, was expected to appear.

"It has been postponed," confirms a spokesman for the film maker, Neal Street Productions. "It all happened very quickly. Pre-production work over-ran. There need to be leaves on the trees."

The spokesman adds: "We hope that filming will take place next year. As far as I know, Mendes will still be the director."

Mendes, 45, who won an Oscar for American Beauty, the first film he directed, had been due to work on the next James Bond picture, but that was postponed "indefinitely" because of financial troubles at MGM, the Hollywood studio.

His last three films, Away We Go, Revolutionary Road and Jarhead, have failed to repeat the commercial success of his earlier work.