Ealing’s slate led by Dustin Hoffman’s Nightwork

UK outfit Ealing Studios has announced a raft of high-profile projects including the $35m (£24m) Dustin Hoffman (pictured) project Nightwork.

Based on Irwin Shaw’s novel, it is being scripted by Will Davies (How To Train Your Dragon). The film is a light-hearted caper thriller set around Europe.

“We’re interested in finding bigger, glossier movies,” Ealing boss Barnaby Thompson said. “What we are finding is that those old New Line distributors and others are desperate for those bigger movies. They all need films that they think they can mass market.”

The studio is also developing big budget thriller All That Glitters, scripted by Richard Warlow. This is billed by Thompson as Ealing’s homage to John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon. It is about the hunt for a necklace that once belonged to Helen of Troy and will have a budget between $25m (£17m) to $35m (£24m).

Meanwhile, Ealing is hatching a third St Trinian’s film, likely to be called St Trinian’s Versus The World. It will shoot either at the end of this year or in early 2011.

Ealing is also to revive the Doctor In The House franchise. In Cannes this weekend, Thompson confirmed that it is remaking the 1954 Rank Organisation comedy classic which transformed Drike Bogarde into a major star. Its regular UK distributor Entertainment is co-developing the project and will handle the UK release. Ealing bought the rights from ITV. If the film proves successful, further Doctor films are expected to follow.

The prolific UK studio is also developing Fishermen’s Friends, a film about a group of Cornish fishermen who enjoyed unlikely chart success singing sea shanties. Thompson bills the project as “a male Calendar Girls”.

Also, Ealing has sold Burke and Hare to  La  Fabrique due Film for France, Transmission for Australia New Zealand, Entertainment for the UK, Prime Pictures for the Middle East, Prime Pictures for the Middle East, Odeon for Greece, and Cinesky for Airlines.