Cate Blanchett to star in A Manual For Cleaning Women

Cate Blanchett is to star in Pedro Almodóvar‘s first English-language feature film.

The ‘I’m Not There’ actress will lead the cast of the Spanish filmmaker’s next project, ‘A Manual For Cleaning Women’, which is based on a short story collection by Lucia Berlin that features 43 teals about women in various demanding jobs.

Cate will also produce the project with her Dirty Films banner, alongside her husband Andrew Upton and Coco Francini, while New Republic Pictures’ Brian Oliver and Bradley Fischer will also produce, as will the director.

Pedro – whose 2020 short ‘The Human Voice’, which starred Tilda Swinton, was made in English – confirmed last month the project “should” be his next movie but there were no guarantees.

He said: “We’re in the midst of working on this film ‘A Manual for Cleaning Women’, but it’s still to be seen whether it’s going to be the next film. It should be the next film, but I can’t say with certainty. It would be, in fact, my first feature film that will be in full English.”

Pedro explained he was writing the movie in Spanish before translating it into English and admitting penning a new script is always a long process for him.

He said: “The genesis of my stories is a long one. It starts with a series of notes, and I take that and eventually turn them into scripts. But I work on them for a very long period of time. This doesn’t mean I’m working on them every day. I work on them until there’s something about them I don’t like, and then I set them aside.

“In the meantime, I’m also making films.”