“Matrix” star Hugo Weaving to join “Healing” prison feature

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hugo Weaving is reteaming with Australian director Craig Monahan to star in his new prison feature, Healing, alongside Xavier Samuel and Don Hany, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Healing, a tale of redemption and the discovery of hope, centers on real-life prison inmate Viktor Khadem’s (Hany) last 18 months before release after serving a 16-year term. Khadem is sent to Won Wron, a low-security, pre-release prison farm, where Senior Officer Matt Perry (Weaving) has established a unique program to rehabilitate broken men by giving them the responsibility for the rehabilitation of injured game birds, such as eagles, falcons and owls.

Weaving and Monahan previously worked together on Monahan’s Australian Film Institute award-winning feature, The Interview in 1998 and Peaches (2004).

Also joining the cast is Xavier Samuel, Jane Menelaus, Anthony Hayes, Mark Leonard Winter, Robert Taylor, Justine Clarke, Laura Brent and Tony Martin.

Andrew Lesnie, coming off the ground-breaking Hobbit films, is the director of photography.

Production starts in Melbourne and regional Victoria on Feb. 18, with a release slated for early 2014.