Ralph Fiennes Will Reunite with 'The English Patient' Co-Star Juliette Binoche for 'The Return'

The 1996 film The English Patient was a prestige period drama juggernaut --- the kind of film that absolutely epitomized the intellectual, highbrow brand that was Miramax in the 1990s. It was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and acting nods for stars Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Juliette Binoche. (It went on to win eight.) And now, after over twenty-five years, two of its leads are finally going to work together again.

Fiennes and Binoche have been tapped to star in the upcoming historical film The Return, based on Homer's epic poem The Odyssey. The world of publishing has been awash in Greek mythology retellings for the past few years  — see also: Madeline Miller's Circe, Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne, and so many more  — so it makes sense that this trend would finally make its way to the multiplex too.

Fiennes will play the famous Greek hero Odysseus, who returns to his kingdom of Ithaca two decades after he left to fight in the Trojan War. (Following the sack of Troy — which Odysseus played a big part in winning thanks to the whole wooden horse thing — he spent years on various adventures, both willing and unwilling, as he tried to get back home.) Haggard and unrecognizable, the king is certainly much changed when he finally reaches the shores of his homeland. But so is Ithaca, where Odysseus's beloved wife Penelope (Binoche) is now essentially a prisoner in her own home, and must dedicate her time to finding ways to hold off the horde of ambitious suitors who constantly pressure her to choose a new husband, and thereby a new king.