In a film adaptation of bestseller The Dinner

Steve Coogan is to star alongside Richard Gere in a new film drama set over a tense meal at a swanky restaurant.

The Dinner is based on the novel of the same name by Dutch author Herman Koch, which has sold more than a million copies in Europe alone.

Coogan and Gere will play brothers. Gere’s Stan is a smooth-talking celebrity turned politician, while Coogan’s Paul has a chip on his shoulder and is currently not working.

Coogan, of course, shot to fame playing a man called Paul (Calf), who has a chip on his shoulder and is currently not working.

Over the duration course of the meal, it emerged that the brothers and their wives – to be played by Laura Linney and Rebecca Hall – need to talk about a horrific crime committed by their teenage children.

The film is being directed and written by  Oren Moverman, whose credits include The Messenger and Rampart. He said: ‘The Dinner is an extraordinarily provocative, conscience-bending ride that takes on culturally relevant issues and turns them into an intricate menu of human passions and primal fears.’

The news comes in the same week that <a href="https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2016/01/18/23973/steve_coogan_to_play_stan_laurel ">it was announced</a> that Coogan will play Stan Laurel alongside John C Reilly’s Oliver Hardy in a new BBC Film about the comedy duo’s last tour of the UK.

Published: 20 Jan 2016