Filming of 'Fugitive Pieces' to start in spring

Anne Michaels's novel Fugitive Pieces is finally going to make it to the big screen.

Filming is set to start in the spring with Canadian Jeremy Podeswa directing, according to Variety.

Robert Lantos, the Canadian movie mogul, is producing through his Serendipity Point Films. The project has been in development at Serendipity for six years, with Podeswa lined up as director.

The $12-million financing deal involves Canadian money and money from Greece, where the first half of the story takes place and will be filmed.

Poetic and lyrical, Fugitive Pieces is the story of a Jewish-Polish boy who witnesses the massacre of his family in the Second World War. He is rescued by a man, who smuggles him to his island home in Greece and raises him as his son. The two ultimately move to Toronto.

The second part of the film is to be shot in Canada.

Fugitive Pieces came out in 1996 and within a matter of months was an international bestseller. It's among the bestselling Canadian novels of all time, and turned Michaels into an A-list literary star. The book won several awards worldwide and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize.

Podeswa directed the critically acclaimed The Five Senses and Eclipse and more recently episodes of Six Feet Under, Rome and Commander in Chief.