Werner Herzog tunes into "Piano" drama

By Gregg Goldstein and Borys Kit

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Werner Herzog will write and direct "The Piano Tuner," a lush Victorian-era drama about a Brit's journey to war-torn Burma.

Based on Daniel Mason's 2002 debut novel, the Focus Features project centers on Edgar Drake, a man sent to a remote village in the late 19th Century to repair an eccentric military man's piano. Drake falls in love with a Burmese woman and her country, but as the officer wins over locals through music and medicine, things grow treacherous when his troops begin to suspect him of treason.

The German filmmaker has directed several films about men venturing into exotic locales ("Rescue Dawn," "Grizzly Man," "Fitzcarraldo"), but this will be his biggest English-language costume drama.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter