Dustin Hoffman and Anthony Hopkins for The Song Of Names

If this movie doesn't sound like Oscar bait I don't know what does. Hoffman and Hopkins ( who will play the adult versions of their childhood friendship ) are signed on to star, and yes, for the first time sharing the screen, in this adaptation from the Norman Lebrecht novel of the same name, with the screenplay being adapted by Oscar nominee Jeffrey Caine ( The Constant Gardener ) and the film directed by Vadim Perelman ( House Of Sand and Fog ) Perelman has landed 7 time Oscar nominee James Horner to score the film and it will be interesting to see who he chooses as his director of photography. The great Roger Deakins who worked with Perelman on House Of Sand and Fog, does have some room on his itinerary having just finishing work on the Coen brothers True Grit. Deakins would be a great choice.

The story of The Song Of Names starts with Martin Simmonds, the President ad Owner of Simmonds Ltd. (a music publishing company), has been asked to judge a music festival in the small town of Tawburn. He hears nothing remarkable until one young player - a violinist - plays a certain rubato, one that reminds Martin of the young man who stayed with his family in London, pre-WWII. The young man was a virtuoso, showing great promise but disappeared from Martin's family and from the world mysteriously, on the day of his debut performance.
What follows in Norman Lebrecht's "The Song of Names," is a story of remembrance and devotion. With that one rubato, Martin travels back in time, to when his father took in the promising young violinist, Dovidl Rapoport, while his father returned to Warsaw to protect his family. He remembers all the devotion the two shared and the pain that was caused to him and his family upon Dovidl's disappearance. The grown-up Martin begins a search for Dovidl, forcing both of them to face up to their pasts.

The characters are very well-defined and believable. Plus, Lebrecht's descriptions of life in pre-War London from a child's perspective are quite remarkable. You really feel as though you are biking through the streets with the two young boys or watching the Germans warplanes flying over London. He also gives the reader insight into the different sects of the Jewish community in both the past and the present.