Almodovar's off to the next project

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, whose Hable con Ella (Talk to Her) is currently in theaters, will start shooting his next picture in April. La Mala Educacion (Bad Education) uses three time periods to trace the lives of two boys from a 1960s church school to adulthood. Cast members for key roles have not yet been announced. Almodovar had wanted to shoot Education in early 2001 but shelved the picture in favor of Hable con Ella when he had problems casting one of the two male leads. He has since rewritten the screenplay to concentrate on the friends' adulthood, focusing more on the consequences than the experience of a Catholic education. "Like all of Pedro's films, La Mala Educacion will have autobiographical touches but can't really be described as autobiographical," said producer Agustin Almodovar, the director's brother. Preproduction will begin this month, and shooting will take place in Madrid and a rural part of Valencia, in eastern Spain. After Education, it's highly probable that Almodovar will shoot his long-simmering adaptation of the French novel Tarantula in the second half of 2004. He has an advanced version of the screenplay, and Antonio Banderas is keen to star, which would reunite him with the director who launched his international career. Talk to Her swept the 15th European Film Awards in December, picking up Best Film, Director, and Screenwriter honors for Almodovar.