Hathaway, Irwin, Etc. Set for Film 'Dancing with Shiva'

Theatre veterans Anne Hathaway, Bill Irwin and Anna Deavere Smith will star with Debra Winger in Dancing with Shiva, a new film by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, The Manchurian Candidate), Variety reports.

Released by Sony Classics, the comedy will be based on a screenplay by Jenny Lumet, the daughter of director Sidney, and will be directed by Demme.  It will be produced by Demme with Neda Armian and Marc Platt.  It will begin filming in Connecticut next month.

Hathaway, who has been seen in the Encores! production of Carnival, currently stars in Becoming Jane.  Her other credits include The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada and Brokeback Mountain.  Deavere Smith is the award-winning actress and creator of such pieces as Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992.  Other film and TV credits include Philadelphia, The American President and "The West Wing."  Irwin is a Tony Award-winner for his performance in the recent Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.  He can be seen in numerous films and other Broadway credits include The Goat, Fool Moon and Largely New York.  Irwin and Smith were both previously seen in Demme's The Manchurian Candidate.

Photo of Anne Hathaway by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.