Merchant Ivory Productions(MIP) has acquired rights to Peter Cameron's novel City Of Your Final Destination and it will be James Ivory's nextfilm as a director after The WhiteCountess which is shooting later this year. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala iscurrently writing the screenplay.

Talking to Screen in Cannesyesterday, MIP's Ismail Merchant said that the film will be the company's firstto shoot in Latin America and is scheduled to go before cameras in Oct 2005.

Merchant and Ivory aretalking to Omar Metwally, an Egyptian American actor who is currently appearingin Broadway hit 16 Wounded with JuddHirsch, to take the lead role in the film - about an Iranian PhD student whoapproaches the family of a deceased Uruguyan writer to request permission towrite his biography. When he is turned down, he travels there to meet withthem.

City willgo into production after The WhiteCountess which shoots in Shanghai in September with Ralph Fiennes, NatashaRichardson and Vanessa Redgrave in the lead roles. The film is based is anoriginal screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro. Lynn Redgrave has joined the cast,marking the first time that Vanessa Redgrave, her sister Lynn and daughterRichardson have appeared in the same picture. Ivory will direct and Merchantproduce. Global Cinema Group is handling sales here.

In early 2005, Merchant willstart his next film as director TheGoddess Shakti with Matthew Modine and Tina Turner in the role of Hindugoddess Shakti.