Movie legend and multiple Oscar winner Sir Daniel Day-Lewis is making a return to acting after retiring in 2017 to star in his son’s debut feature film.
The Gangs of New York star, 67, dramatically quit acting after appearing in what would be his final role in Phantom Thread – for which he picked up his sixth Academy Award nomination for best actor.
He will star in Anemone, which is being produced by Focus Features, who also shepherded Day-Lewis senior’s last film to the big screen.
Fist-time director Ronan, 26, co-wrote the screenplay with his dad, which is said to examine the family bonds specifically between fathers, sons and brothers.
Sean Bean, Samantha Morton, Samuel Bottomley and Safia Oakley-Green are also in the cast, with Sir Daniel seen on set in the UK with Bean on Tuesday in pictures obtained by MailOnline.
The pair were photographed on a motorcycle together with Sir Daniel in a white helmet and rocking a striking silver beard and ‘tache combo.
‘We could not be more excited to partner with a brilliant visual artist in Ronan Day-Lewis on his first feature film alongside Daniel Day-Lewis as his creative collaborator,’ Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski said in a statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
‘They have written a truly exceptional script, and we look forward to bringing their shared vision to audiences alongside the team at Plan B.’
Ronan has been working as a painter and filmmaker to some acclaim, with a solo exhibition set to open tomorrow in Hong Kong.
His father is considered one of the best acting talents of his generation and remains the only male performer to have won three best actor Oscars: for My Left Foot in 1990, There Will Be Blood in 2008 and Lincoln in 2013.
He also netted nominations for In the Name of the Father and Gangs of New York, alongside Phantom Thread.
His shock retirement from the screen was announced out of the blue via a message from his then-publicist Leslee Dart.
‘Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor. He is immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years,’ the statement read. ‘This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject.’
Since then, the star has rarely been spotted out and about.
However, he did make an exception for his old friend and collaborator Martin Scorsese, appearing at an awards event in support of the filmmaker’s movie Killers of the Flower Moon in January.
The actor, who starred in Scorsese’s Gangs Of New York (2002) and The Age Of Innocence (1993), called working with the director ‘one of the greatest joys and unexpected privileges of my life’.
Scorsese joked that he was hoping to coax Sir Daniel out of retirement for one final film together, but he’s been beaten to it by the star’s son.
He shares Ronan and younger son Cashel, 22, with filmmaker and author wife Rebecca Miller, who is the daughter of famous American playwright Arthur Miller.
He is also father to actor Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis, 29, with award-winning French actress Isabelle Adjani.
The famous method actor, who is also known for films including The Last of the Mohicans and The Crucible, made his screen debut as a teenager in Sunday Bloody Sunday in 1971 before moving on to a number of memorable period drama roles.
He had a major breakthrough in 1985’s My Beautiful Laundrette, about a young gay man in an interracial relationship.
Sir Daniel was made a Knight Bachelor of the British Empire by the Duke of Cambridge in 2014.
He was known for taking breaks between his acting projects to recover and reset, but spoke out about his seemingly final decision to retire a few months after the statement was issued.
‘All my life, I’ve mouthed off about how I should stop acting, and I don’t know why it was different this time, but the impulse to quit took root in me, and that became a compulsion,’ he told W Magazine. ‘It was something I had to do.’
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